The box office success of “Gladiator II” is a reminder that many Americans are obsessed with the Roman Empire. They've been joined over the years by more than a few ‘America’ contributors.

Doris Grumbach was an accomplished novelist, literary critic, biographer and memoirist and an early pioneer for her books exploring L.G.B.T. themes. She was also a longtime book reviewer and essayist for ‘America.’

‘Lolita’ may have been canceled, but Vladimir Nabokov remains the godfather of modern prose.

Much ink has been spilled over this presidential election—but not nearly as much as was used in a long history of presidential memoirs and biographies.

Few writers have ever captured in fiction the American religious sense that underlies so much of our history more than Willa Cather.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, didn’t think much of bishops’ conferences. Among those who disagreed with the cardinal was Francis A. Sullivan, S.J.