The Best American Essays of the Century
by Oates, Joyce Carol (ed.); Robert Atwan (co-ed.); Mark Twain; W. E. B. Du Bois; Henry Adams; John Muir; William James; Randolph Bourne; John Jay Chapman; Jane Addams; T. S. Eliot; Ernest Hemingway; H. L. Mencken; Zora Neale Hurston; Edmund Wilson; Gertrude
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0618043705
- ISBN 13
- 9780618043705
- Seller
-
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, United States
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About This Item
Synopsis
This singular collection is nothing less than a political, spiritual, and intensely personal record of America's tumultuous modern age by our foremost critics, commentators, activists, and artists. In her introduction to this volume, Joyce Carol Oates describes her project as "a search for the expression of personal experience within the historical, the individual talent within the tradition." Along with Robert Atwan, who has overseen the acclaimed BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS series since its inception in 1986, Oates has chosen a list of works that are both intimate and important, essays that take on subjects of profound and universal significance while retaining the power and spirit of a personal address. This collection honors some of the twentieth century's best-known and best-loved writers on a breathtaking variety of topics. In a journalistic mode, Ernest Hemingway covers the bullfights in Pamplona, H. L. Mencken reacts to the Scopes trial, and Michael Herr dodges bullets in a helicopter over Vietnam. Nowhere is the intersection of our personal and political histories more meaningful than when the subject is America’s enduring legacy of racial strife, as shown by Richard Wright’s "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow," James Baldwin’s "Notes of a Native Son," Zora Neale Hurston’s "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," and others. The wonders and horrors of science, nature, and the cosmos are explored with eloquence, bravery, and beauty when Lewis Thomas writes about "The Lives of a Cell," Rachel Carson mulls "The Marginal World," and Stephen Jay Gould preaches evolution and baseball in "The Creation Myths of Cooperstown." Taken together, these essays fit, in the words of Joyce Carol Oates, "into a kind of mobile mosaic suggest[ing] where we've come from, and who we are, and where we are going." Mark Twain W.E.B. Du Bois Henry Adams John Muir William James Randolph Bourne John Jay Chapman Jane Addams T. S. Eliot Ernest Hemingway H. L. Mencken Zora Neale Hurston Edmund Wilson Gertrude Stein F. Scott Fitzgerald James Thurber Richard Wright James Agee Robert Frost E. B. White S. J. Perelman Langston Hughes Katherine Anne Porter Mary McCarthy Rachel Carson James Baldwin Loren Eiseley Eudora Welty Donald Hall Martin Luther King, Jr. Tom Wolfe Susan Sontag Vladimir Nabokov N. Scott Momaday Elizabeth Hardwick Michael Herr Maya Angelou Lewis Thomas John McPhee William H. Gass Maxine Hong Kingston Alice Walker Adrienne Rich Joan Didion Richard Rodriguez Gretel Ehrlich Annie Dillard Cynthia Ozick William Manchester Edward Hoagland Stephen Jay Gould Gerald Early John Updike Joyce Carol Oates Saul Bellow
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Details
- Bookseller
- Dobler Book Co. (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- D13
- Title
- The Best American Essays of the Century
- Author
- Oates, Joyce Carol (ed.); Robert Atwan (co-ed.); Mark Twain; W. E. B. Du Bois; Henry Adams; John Muir; William James; Randolph Bourne; John Jay Chapman; Jane Addams; T. S. Eliot; Ernest Hemingway; H. L. Mencken; Zora Neale Hurston; Edmund Wilson; Gertrude
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0618043705
- ISBN 13
- 9780618043705
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin
- Place of Publication
- Boston
- Date Published
- 2000
- Pages
- 596
- Keywords
- Essays, Essay Collections; Joyce Carol Oates; Signed Books
Terms of Sale
Dobler Book Co.
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About the Seller
Dobler Book Co.
About Dobler Book Co.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...