The Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Essays

Gathers essays by Paul Fussell, Gail Godwin, Stephen Jay Gould, Joyce Carol Oates, Cynthia Ozick, Noel Perrin, and Gore Vidal. A House And A Household / David Haward Bain -- Writer And Region / Wendell Berry -- Freud: The Perfection That Destroys / Harold Bloom -- Being There / Anatole Broyard -- American Theater In Process: Crisis Or Change? / Robert Brustein -- The Pleasures Of Repitition (revisiting Whitman) / Lawrence Buell -- The Plane On South Mountain / John Elder -- Death Of A Hornet / Robert Finch -- Indy / Paul Fussell -- Goodness Knows Nothing Of Beauty: On The Distance Between Morality And Art / William H. Gass -- My Face / Gail Godwin -- Freudian Slip / Stephen Jay Gould -- Let's Say You Wrote Badly This Morning / David Huddle -- Downtown With Horatio Alger / Marcus Klein -- Faith And Loving In Las Vegas / Nancy Mairs -- The Brain That Hears The Music / Paul Mariani -- Dancing With Nature / Don Mitchell -- Beginnings / Joyce Carol Oates. How To Tell A True War Story / Tim O'brien -- On Permission To Write / Cynthia Ozick -- The Poetry Of Inheritance / Robert Pack -- A Cosy Cosmology / Heinz R. Pagels -- Town Life / Jay Parini -- Penelope -- The Sequel: Some Uses Of Mythology In Contemporary Poetry / Linda Pastan -- War On The Farm / Noel Perrin -- Faith Of The Father / Sam Pickering -- Why There Are Box Scores / Ron Powers -- West Of Boston: Robert Frost / William H. Pritchard -- Plots And Manipulations: A Writer Reads The Second Book Of Samuel / Lore Segal -- Reflections On The Constitution / Gore Vidal -- Telling Time / Nancy Willard -- Heavy Breathing / Hilma Wolitzer -- Bibliography Of Recent Work. Edited By Robert Pack And Jay Parini. Includes Bibliographical References. Thirty-two of America's best contemporary authors practice the art of the essay in its varied forms.