The author on Lolita, his work habits, and what he expected from his literary afterlife.

In 2009, Condé Nast allowed this story to appear in print but refused to publish it online or distribute it in Russia for fear of retribution. The story, which details the intrigue behind the Moscow apartment bombings that allowed Vladimir Putin’s rapid ascension to power, is reprinted on Longform courtesy of the author.

Sixty years later, a dishonorably discharged World War I veteran makes one final appeal. The 1980 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing.

A profile of Roseanne Barr and her multiple personalities.

A profile of Chloë Sevigny, 19-year-old It Girl.

“It’s the American view that everything has to keep climbing: productivity, profits, even comedy. No time for reflection. No time to contract before another expansion. No time to grow up. No time to fuck up. No time to learn from your mistakes. But that notion goes against nature, which is cyclical.”

A profile of Merle Haggard.

In a matter of months she became one of the world’s most famous porn stars. Three years later, she was dead. The rise and fall of Savannah.

Life and death with the young and radicalized.

On George Plimpton and the founders of The Paris Review.

Why last night’s chicken made you sick.

“I don’t know what other singers feel when they articulate lyrics, but being an 18-karat manic-depressive and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an overacute capacity for sadness as well as elation. I know what the cat who wrote the song is trying to say. I’ve been there—and back. I guess the audience feels it along with me. They can’t help it. Sentimentality, after all, is an emotion common to all humanity.”

In what will likely be his last political act, Willie Nelson declares war on corporate marijuana.

A profile of New York Times obituary writer Alden Whitman.

Dorothy Stratten was the focus of the dreams and ambitions of three men. One killed her.

Investigating an infamous Yale secret society.

A reporter’s memories from a half-century of covering business.

Scott Storch, a producer who earned six figures for beats he made in less than an hour, was worth an estimated $70 million. Then he blew it all in a bizarre cocaine binge.

An excerpt from the best-selling true crime book of all time.

The very early life of Joe Biden.

Rebellious teens on the Sunset Strip.

A Taliban intelligence chief’s death and resurrection.