NYT Books

How the film writer David Thomson found himself in a lover’s quarrel with cinema — and America.

The writer and actor, known for his profane comedic antiheroes, likes to find universal truths in human flaws.

The older brother of the music mogul Russell Simmons and the rapper Joseph Simmons, he made his own way as an artistic and entrepreneurial force in Brooklyn.

With his haunting images of steam locomotives, steel mills and Midwestern farms, the celebrated lensman revealed the poetry in the artifacts of manual labor.

Part of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, he went on to reclaim a leading musician of the psychedelic era as a distinctly African American artist.

Lots of guys are recommending “As a Man Thinketh” for self-improvement. That’s not what it gave me.

Declared a national living treasure in 1997, he wrote poetry and short stories but was best known for his nine novels, including “The Great World.”

Doctors believed that Woody Brown would never be able to speak or process language. He went to graduate school and is publishing his debut novel.

Our columnist on the month’s best books.

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