The crucible of mega-stardom is for some the eye of the storm, and for others the storm itself. Some artists take deeper breaths in the rarefied air of celebrity and make the best work of their lives ...

The Book Bench is on summer vacation this week, which gives us the chance to run some of our favorite writing on summertime from the magazine's archives. Check back every day for a new selection.

During the summer of 1995 four members of Princeton's class of 1996, David Thom, Susannah Hobbs, Jennifer Smith, and Sanjay Arwade, were enlisted to continue the project begun in Professor Cakmak's ...