Kate Cray

The critic Carlos Lozada read some 150 books about the Trump era before writing his book What Were We Thinking. In those volumes, he found a regime that was appalling in its lunacy and that would leave a long-lasting carnage.As Trump left office and Biden was sworn in this week, I found myself thinking about other presidential legacies and the books that reflect on them. Some, written years after a leader’s time in office, make the case for vindicating a complicated figure.

When he decided to write a memoir, the journalist Jose Antonio Vargas faced an overwhelming challenge: crafting a story that was particular to him while knowing that some might believe it represented a much broader narrative about immigration. In Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, he makes clear that he speaks only for himself. But he also fills the book with reporting on the many challenges other undocumented people face.

The poet Marianne Moore had a deeply close—perhaps too close—relationship with her mother, Mary. This idiosyncratic bond intrigued Moore’s contemporaries and her biographer Linda Leavell, who trains her eye on it in Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore.

The poet Marianne Moore had a deeply close—perhaps too close—relationship with her mother, Mary. This idiosyncratic bond intrigued Moore’s contemporaries and her biographer Linda Leavell, who trains her eye on it in Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore.

After the success of Ocean Vuong’s poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, some dismissively suggested that the poet explore themes other than “war, violence, queerness, and immigration,” Kat Chow reported in a 2019 Atlantic profile. But Vuong wasn’t done considering those topics. So he disregarded his critics and wrote a novel.

When Jessica started to experience intense chest pain in March, she was terrified that she might have the coronavirus. Then her foster son started to experience symptoms too.The high school in western New York State where she taught had just closed. She couldn’t get a test to confirm that her respiratory illness was indeed COVID-19, and she was confused about whether she should go to the emergency room or just stay home. She is single, and was her foster son’s only guardian.

In 1928, Gay Neck, which depicts the adventures of a young boy and his carrier pigeon, became the first novel written by a person of color to win the prestigious Newbury Medal. Yet nearly a century later, the book and its author, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, are largely overlooked, seldom referenced even in discussions about diversity in children’s literature.Mukerji is not the only author to have found great success and then seemingly disappeared from historical memory.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last Friday, attracted a fandom like no Supreme Court justice before her. Halloween costumes, Tumblr accounts, films (such as On the Basis of Sex), and books (including Notorious RBG) cemented her cult of personality. For such a rule-following legal figure (carefully rendered by Jane Sherron De Hart in the biography Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life), this meme-ified public image can seem perplexing.

Political speeches make up a strange genre of writing. This year’s Democratic National Convention has showcased their breadth, featuring Barack Obama’s fearful warning, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s self-aggrandizing remarks, a disjointed keynote from 17 “rising stars,” and Michelle Obama’s forceful call to action.Speeches such as these can influence a figure’s legacy. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words highlight his eloquence and vision.

Who wrote Shakespeare’s plays? A definitive statement of authorship may be hard to come by, but evidence suggests that the bard did not write alone. He co-wrote The Two Noble Kinsmen with his contemporary John Fletcher, and collaborations with actors, playwrights, and others likely informed his other works.

Memoirs by politicians and their family members are in a strange genre that must balance compelling storytelling with personal aims. Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough is better written than most, Megan Garber argues. (Mary has a master’s degree in comparative literature.

“Seek to encapsulate Florida in a single narrative, and you’ll find yourself thwarted,” Lauren Groff writes in a review of Kent Russell’s In the Land of Good Living. In the book, Russell and his friends walk from the northwest corner of Florida’s panhandle south to Miami’s Coconut Grove, learning the state’s lore and teasing apart “the accepted story of Florida” from “the actual—far darker—story.