Susan Cheever

<p>From the Pilgrims (‘beer was their water’) to President Nixon (he ordered the Damascus airport bombed while bombed), drinking has played a longstanding and sometimes crucial role in American history. Susan Cheever, author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Drinking-America-Our-Secret-History/dp/1455513873/" target="_blank">Drinking in America: Our Secret History</a></i>, offers a diverting tour of the high points.</p>

Bret Anthony Johnston talks to Susan Cheever about his literary thriller that begins where most such stories stop: when the kidnapped victim comes home.

That was sadly even true for Margaret Fuller, one of the leading lights of transcendentalism. Thanks to a new biography, her tumultuous romantic life and intellectual contributions are back in the spotlight. By Susan Cheever.

The latest round of beach reads set among America’s elite behaving badly gets Susan Cheever thinking about what Fitzgerald wrought.

‘Blue Nights’ was almost abandoned halfway through. Joan Didion tells Susan Cheever why.

Why do even the best novelists lose their literary magic after a few books? Susan Cheever writes in Newsweek about when to call it quits.

Happy Birthday Meryl, Vera, Sissy, and Anna! These beautiful, brilliant, accomplished women are putting the “sex” back into sexagenarian.

Ayelet Waldman was slammed for writing she loved her husband, Michael Chabon, more than her kids. Susan Cheever says Waldman’s honest new memoir is a tragedy wrapped in a comedy.

“Yes, my father was a difficult, alcoholic, closeted gay man who was sometimes mean to his family. What seems to have been lost with time is his extraordinary humor.”

The Daily Beast's Susan Cheever talks to Last Chance Harvey's Emma Thompson about sexuality, her biological clock, and why being in love is like being dead.