Jessica Hooten Wilson

“Why read Russian literature?” It was the kind of question that a professor longs for, and the student asked it with genuine interest. In an age when we scan articles in minutes and read more tweets than books, the question is fair. Russian novels are…

In 2012, a writer for The Atlantic brought to readers’ attention the decline of virtues in our vocabulary. Over the last hundred years, people were writing less and less about sincerity, patience, or mercy. Researchers noticed a sharp decline in “virtue words”: “People simply do not think/talk/write about…

“I choose novels that let me turn my brain off,” a student confessed to me. My immediate response was to chastise her, “You did not receive a brain so that it could be turned off.” However, that evening I found myself streaming an old sitcom…

What to do when the leader of the free world expresses envy and admiration of an authoritarian dictator? Following the North Korea–United States summit, President Trump said of Kim Jong-Un, “He is the head of a country, and I mean he is the strong head. . . . He…

"The only cure for depression is suicide.” Walker Percy was not joking when he penned this line. The author himself was a survivor of suicide—though he did not attempt it. His grandfather and father both shot themselves at home; his mother either intentionally or not…

Books saved Walker Percy’s life. It would be more accurate to say, novels saved his life. The cure was surprising because Percy was a resident at Columbia University at the time, training to be a physician. He never would have expected his life to take…