When the poet Hart Crane jumped from a ship to his death in the waters of the Caribbean on an April morning in 1932 alarmed crewmembers threw life preservers into the water after him Their rescue effort was not only futile but also ironic since Crane rsquo s father had invented the Life Saver can

Eugene Taylor is a clinical psychologist lecturer at Harvard Medical School and senior psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital He has previously written on William James and consciousness as well as spiritual healing and has been involved in a variety of oriental cult groups He brings

Brave novelist Ron Hansen In Mariette in Ecstasy 1991 he entered the mind of a contemplative nun with bleeding stigmata In Atticus 1996 he looked into the paternal love of a 67-year-old Colorado cattleman pursuing his estranged son in Mexico Now in Hitler rsquo s Niece he takes on the young

Each crisp winter morning these days, I smell the steam heat creeping through the old radiators of my Upper West Side Manhattan apartment. The hot water for my morning shower also (almost) never fails. How remarkable these little comforts are! I have a fresh appreciation for warmth because two month

On the chilly afternoon of Nov. 30, I headed up Broadway bound for a party, the celebration of Commonweal magazine’s 75th anniversary. Arriving at Fordham-Lincoln Center’s McNally Amphitheater, I plunked myself down next to Bob Hoyt, Commonweal’s "senior writer," and Denn

Billy Joel once said in an interview on "60 Minutes" that he thinks of his songs as his children. He remarked that some of them go on to become doctors and lawyers (presumably the Top 40 Hits), while others grow up to be bums. I wonder if Billy believes that any of his "kids" cou

Henry A. Foley, currently chief operating officer of the Menlo Health Alliance in Menlo Park, Calif., and former director of other medical groups in the state, has also been director of Behavioral Health Services for Hawaii and a deputy director and planning chief at the National Institute of Mental

There are times, I must confess, when I am tempted to indulge in a bit of merriment at the expense of those who have presided over our high-tech revolution. They are smart, no doubt about it, but how could they not have anticipated the Y2K bug? We liberal arts types, we who speak a language devoid o