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1854: Federal troops occupy Boston to send a fugitive slave back to slavery In September 2025, Milkweed Editions brought out my edited volume, The Essays of Henry David Thoreau . The angriest essay in that collection is “Slavery in Massachusetts,” a cry of protest against the rendition of a fugitive slave and against Thoreau’s fellow ... ... Read more
A fossil butterfly from the Eocene, 34 million years ago In 2023 I was commissioned by Harper’s Magazine to write an essay about butterflies, the climate crisis and deep time. It appeared in the July 2025 issue. ... Read more
Nabokov's drawing of the wings of the "Karner Blue" (P. melissa samuelis) In 2021 – 2022 I was a fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, studying the library’s wonderful collection of manuscripts from both Henry David Thoreau and Vladimir Nabokov, all the while working on essays ... ... Read more
Beginning in the fall of 2020, I worked as one of the curators preparing for the 2022 opening of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Center houses and exhibits more than 100,000 exclusive cultural treasures created and owned by Dylan over seven decades, including original manuscripts, unreleased recordings, unseen film performances, photos and ... ... Read more