Often scorned and rejected in her own day, Zora Neale Hurston was a pioneering writer who looked beyond the controversies of her time and sought to articulate a lasting vision of life—one free of bitterness or pettiness and full of grace and beauty.

Dorothy Fontana, who died this week at the age of eighty, is best known for her work as a writer for the original Star Trek television series. But, in fact, she was one of the most remarkable women in Hollywood history.

Exemplars of Enlightenment thinking, Deborah Feldman, Yeonmi Park, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali escaped oppression in pursuit of freedom, rational inquiry, and the life these values make possible. They are models for us all.

The bravery of today’s Hong Kong protestors is nothing short of incredible. Confronting the massive forces of the world’s largest and most bloodstained dictatorship, they stand for freedom against overwhelming odds. Yet they remain undaunted.

Stevie Ray Vaughan left lasting monuments to his musical genius—and a lesson about the importance of focusing on the important things in life.

Robert Eggers’s lovingly crafted The Witch and The Lighthouse conjure the eerie beauty of the New England idiom to evoke a few chills.

A. E. Stallings witnesses every day the juxtaposition of ancient and modern, and her work combines the haunting beauty of Greek myth with the daily occupations of modern life.

Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling's sense of life was rooted in a belief that humanity could triumph over its challenges. Sixty years after its debut, the show remains one of the most popular ever made and a fixture of American culture.

Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as polls report the increasing popularity of socialism among young Americans, it’s worth pausing to remember the massive evil it embodied and the bravery that brought it down.

Countless people through the centuries have been denied the comforts of literacy and the thrill of encountering life-changing ideas in books. This week is a good time to reflect on how fortunate we are to have the freedom to read—and to resolve more firmly to exercise it.

For all of his errors, Jaffa's insistence that the truths of the Declaration are not historical artifacts but timeless principles worthy of defending will make his best work last forever.

Carolyn Brady, Paul Jackson, and Steve Hanks introduced a new dimension into watercolor, demonstrating that what some think is an art of mere sketches and impressions is capable of the most staggering emotional impact.

If Hurley, Dennett, and Adams are right, they’ve taken a substantial step in explaining why laughter is among the loveliest manifestations of what it means to be human.

For all its apparent simplicity, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s music resonates because of the precision with which it was written, the discipline with which it was performed, and the bold and joyous spirit it evokes in its fans.

At a time when Americans are once again debating the history of slavery, we must never forget the legacy of Charles Sumner.