A concise study of Tennessee Williams, John Cheever, Carson McCullers and James Baldwin, and how their sexuality informed their work, veers between lecture-hall lit crit and novelistic immediacy

The author and screenwriter on being inspired by Tess of the D’Urbervilles, feeling gloomy over Moomins and rereading Franny and Zooey

From Scott Fitzgerald’s glamour to Edith Wharton’s high-society intrigue, the best of these seductive stories reveal uncomfortable secrets

From Lynne Cox’s feats of endurance to John Cheever’s complacent suburbanites, these titles all explore a kind of life not found on dry land

From Turgenev to Tobias Wolff and John Cheever to Alice Munro, many of the best short stories hinge around borders being transgressed

Anne Tyler’s portrayal of a middle-aged, mid-American marriage displays her narrative clarity, comic timing and ear for American speech to perfection

The books that the show’s characters read are more than just period props – they offer eagle-eyed fans an extra insight into their thinking. As we get ready to close the chapter on the final series, a librarian at the New York Public Library has published the definitive Mad Men reading list

What do Beethoven, Capote and Auden have in common? Seb Emina discovers the strange daily rituals of our artistic heroes