By: Joshua Glenn

“Nature has the habit of now and then producing a type of human being far in advance of the times; an ideal for us to emulate; a being devoid of sham, uncompromising, and to whom […]

By: Franklin Bruno

“St. Louis Blues” may be “the jazzman’s Hamlet,” as one critic has it, but its author, W.C. HANDY (1873-1955) might be compared more fairly to Aeschylus than to Shakespeare. Just as the Greek’s works served […]

By: Tom Nealon

If OL’ DIRTY BASTARD’s (Russell Tyrone Jones, 1968-2004) madness was a tumor pressing on his genius and making it dance, it also caused him excruciating pain. His anguished, wailing stabs at song remain some of […]

By: Tor Aarestad

Perhaps the most prolific cartoonist ever for the high-middlebrow/nobrow New Yorker, and creator of the story that inspired the quatsch film Shrek, WILLIAM STEIG (1907-2003) might not seem an obvious hero for HiLobrow.com. Ladies and […]

By: Sarah Weinman

GEORGE V. HIGGINS (1939-99) is usually remembered for his 1972 novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle. It was his first outing, and its unglamorous look at the underworld set Higgins’ work apart from the grand […]

By: Mark Kingwell

He invented cultural criticism.

By: Lucy Sante

HANS MAGNUS ENZENS­BERGER (born 1929) is a poet, critic, playwright, translator, magazine editor, and author of children’s books about science and mathematics. He has often been called Germany’s greatest living poet. T. W. Adorno, introducing […]

By: Patrick Cates

If you grew up glued to a television set in England in the ’80s, as I did, nothing irritated you more than local and general election broadcasts, which your parents insisted on watching while you […]

By: Lynn Peril

On September 23, 1969, a group of women, conspicuous among them a tall, patrician blonde, handed out mimeographed leaflets to passersby and newlyweds alike at New York City’s marriage bureau. Rather than wedding-day platitudes, the […]

By: Joe Alterio

Her acting career has garnered PARKER POSEY (born 1968) the moniker “Queen of the Indies,” but she deserves an upgrade. In the fantasy life of the young suburban boys who actually grow up to be […]

By: Joshua Glenn

In a 1945 essay, the French-Jewish author, philosopher, and journalist ALBERT CAMUS (1913-60) asked, “What is a man who revolts?” His answer: “First of all, it’s a man who says no. But if he refuses, […]

By: Peggy Nelson

What do you do when you’re ROBERT MUSIL (1880-1942), when you’ve been nominated for a Nobel prize, when you live in abject poverty because you refuse to compromise, when you’re plagued by the success of […]

By: Jason Grote

Writing in 1949, Philip Rahv divided American literature into volatile, rebellious “redskins” and puritan, effete “palefaces.” Although Rahv was dividing the lowbrow from the high, I would assert that, today, our “redskins” are intellectually restless […]

By: Lynn Peril

Classically chiseled male bodies in sumptuous black and white.

By: Joe Alterio

I lived in California for nearly ten years, and whenever I would take the interminable ride up or down The Five, I would stick my old Nikon F1 out the window and try to play […]