John Banville discusses his 1997 review “The European Irishman,” on the work of Hubert Butler. Banville spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.

Joan Didion reads from her 1991 essay “New York: Sentimental Journeys” about the Central Park jogger case. Didion spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.

Steve Coll addresses the political implications of the mission to kill Osama bin Laden and how the author of No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden sidestepped legal issues to publish his book.

Henri Cole reads from his recent book of poems, Touch (2011), and talks about his search for what he calls the “essentialness of emotion.”

Jonathan Freedland talks with Emily Greenhouse about gilded-coach celebrity in an era of austerity, the hereditary principle, and why all bets are off when it comes to Wills and Kate.

Andrew Delbanco talks with Andrew Martin about the first volume of Mark Twain’s unabridged Autobiography and the distinctive joys and challenges of reading Twain in the twenty-first century.

Geoffrey O'Brien talks with Chris Carroll about Duke Ellington's mid-career crisis and stunning comeback, revisiting his often-overlooked albums of the 1960s and 1970s.

Robert Gottlieb speaks to Andrew Martin about Charles Dickens’s troubled life, his best and worst novels, and how to read without editing.

Poet Derek Walcott recites “Fare Well” by Walter de la Mare, and reads “The Hulls of White Yachts,” from his latest collection White Egrets.

Charles Rosen plays the music of Frédéric Chopin and talks to Chris Carroll about the composer's surprising radicalism and the critical controversy surrounding his work, the mysterious spianato style, and whether there is a right way to play Chopin's music.