The Books Briefing: The Part of Human Nature That Bends Toward Solitude

The craft of writing is often associated with solitude; silent contemplation, the reasoning goes, can sprout potent ideas and feelings. Writers find this isolation in many different circumstances, which all translate to the page in striking ways.

Annie Dillard is one of the best-known explorers of the part of humannature that bends toward solitude. Inher book ,she surveys life in a teeming natural ecosystem, where she seems to transcend her suburban surroundings. The poet Dulce María Loynaz is said to have lived alone for decades in a mansion in Havana, producing many rich poems about the treasure and trouble of solitude.