THE A-HED APRIL 27, 2011 Descendant of Sophia of Hanover, She Would Rule Britain if 4,972 Die By PAUL SONNE ROSTOCK, Germany—Karin Vogel wakes up in this graffiti-pocked east German city and drives to the hospital where she is a therapist who counsels elderly people in chronic pain. Karin Vogel is a direct descendant of an obscure German princess from the 18th century known as Sophia of Hanover. And that puts Vogel in line to inherit the British crown–after 4,972 other people. WSJ’s Paul Sonne reports from Rostock, Germany. a few thousand people would just disappear, Ms. Vogel would be leading a far more enchanting life. She would be the queen…

April 26, 2011 All Things Considered [ 3 min. 58 sec. ] Phoebe Snow had one of the most distinctive voices in pop music. It went silent Tuesday morning, more than a year after Snow suffered a brain hemorrhage. She was 60. By Tom Cole, Neda Ulaby April 26, 2011 All Things Considered   Snow was born Phoebe Ann Laub. She actually thought she’d never be a singer because she was so shy. She told NPR in 1998 that she’d made up a name for the hammy part of herself — the part unafraid to get up on stage in Greenwich Village coffeehouses. Snow was 22 when “Poetry Man” reached…

In Memory Of A Mentor: ‘So Long,’ William Maxwell By William Lychack April 27, 2011 William Maxwell was in his 80s when I first wrote to him. An award-winning novelist and short story writer, he’d also been an editor at The New Yorker for 40 years, had worked with everyone from Nabokov to Welty, had once sat on the porch of his house as Salinger read a draft of The Catcher in the Rye to him. Thank goodness I never stopped to appreciate any of this at the time. I was in my early 20s, had just started to write, and I remember Maxwell’s advanced age gave me a sense…