Category: Writer

Julie Powell, Food Writer of ‘Julie & Julia,’ Dies at 49

NEW YORK—Food writer Julie Powell, who became an internet darling after blogging for a year about making every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” leading to a book deal and a film adaptation, has died. She was 49. Powell died of cardiac arrest on Oct. 26 at her home in upstate…


The Mind of a Writer

Commentary The late Kurt Vonnegut had a simple yet profound approach to writing. “When I write,” he said, “I simply become what I seemingly must become.” Stephen Hunter, another great American writer, has a similar approach to his craft today. His process isn’t so much about writing prose or creating plot or conducting research. What…


Tom Bethell: Debunker of Progressive Orthodoxies, Defender of Tradition and Truth

Commentary With the death in February of Tom Bethell (1936–2021), the refuseniks of what Orwell called the “smelly little orthodoxies contending for our souls” have lost an eloquent and redoubtable champion. Over the course of Bethell’s five decades as a writer (of seven books and hundreds of essays), the malodorous certitudes of political correctness have…


Man Overcomes Dyslexia, Poor Health, Childhood Trauma to Become a Prolific Writer

Repressed by an undiagnosed learning difficulty, poor health, and trauma as a child, Dr. Stephen R. Phinney felt he had been born rejected by life itself. Yet decades later, he is a prolific writer followed by millions, and his message is one of perseverance. Phinney was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1955, spending the…