The first biography of the elusive novelist shows how little the lore ever told us about the man — or his art.

ALT: Gabriel Says Not My Department in Good Omens

Annie Dillard died this week. But her voice — wild and holy and hilarious — continues to live in my head, my soul, and somehow, my dog.

Writers aren’t born, they’re made—from practice, reading, and a lot of caffeine. And sometimes tutelage.

"Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him."

Her Thoreau-like account of journeys in the woods, published when she was 28, was the first of many ruminations on life and nature, good and evil.