Sealed Envelope

George Scialabba is an award-winning critic and essayist. He is the author of the memoir How To Be Depressed and the essay collection Only a Voice. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

“Scialabba’s lucidity, incisiveness, and commitment to democratic values have made him one of our finest political essayists—and an essential guide to a period of intellectual reaction, timidity and outright cowardice.”—Adam Shatz, author of The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon“An astute commentator on American society and political ideas, Scialabba is that rarity in American culture: an independent intellectual. Fairness, candor, and consistency have marked his work throughout a unique career. He is always worth reading.”—David Bromwich, Yale University“Scialabba is a premier observer of our intellectuals. While his criticism of many of them is rightly unsparing, Scialabba also gathers shards of utopia in the blasted landscape of the present.”—Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism against Itself“Scialabba quotes Marx’s dictum: ‘In every society, the ideas of the rulers are the ruling ideas.’ His mission as a writer is to challenge that monopoly and show that better, more humane ways of thinking are possible.”—Adam Kirsch, author of The Revolt Against Humanity“Scialabba is unsurpassed in the clarity of his perceptions, the breadth of his humane learning, and the depth of his moral seriousness—always leavened by lively prose and ready wit. He is one of our finest independent social thinkers.”—Jackson Lears, author of Animal Spirits