So, having put aside my copy of The Best American Essays 2009, I picked up the 2010 edition, and noted the Guest Editor. Christopher Hitchens. The late Christopher Hitchens.
     Which reminded me that David Foster Wallace died soon after being guest editor of the 2008 edition, as did Stephen Jay Gould, in 2002. What are the odds that 30% of ( Read more... )

I get actual pleasure, a feeling of uplift and relaxation, from good writing. Since my semester obligations ended, I've been getting that chance to savor good writing more often, and the anthology The Best American Essays 2009 has provided an excellent dose of it. The poet Mary Oliver, was the guest editor for that particular collection, and made ( Read more... )

    I have been nibbling away at this book - Literary Values, by John Burroughs
 - for months. Now that I'll be teaching American Literature it became wise to blaze through this looking for anything I can use in that class.
    Burroughs is one of my favorite essayists, and I've been working my way through his collected works.  This is the 12th ( Read more... )

    I found the selection in The Best American Essays 2008, Adam Gopnik, ed., to be quite different from recent volumes that I've read. The 2006 and 2007 editions were almost half about death/dying/grief, and it did get to be a bit much. This edition seems to favor informational essays about all kinds of things, and avoided the death and dying, ( Read more... )

My 75th and 76th titles for the year are two books I've been putting off for a long time: The Light of Day, by John Burroughs, and Rocks of Ages, by Stephen Jay Gould.

Burroughs and Gould are my two favorite nature essayists, and until a year ago I was systematically working my way through the complete works of Burroughs.  I ( Read more... )

          I try to read a steady quota of essays, especially the Best American Essays collections overseen by Robert Atwan.  I discovered that Stephen Jay Gould, one of my favorite science writers, edited the 2002 edition, I sought it out and bought it.  I suggest you do the same.  The Best American Essays 2002 is the best collection I've read in ( Read more... )

          I meant to read The Best American Essays 2007, David Foster Wallace, ed. in late summer of 2008, and started it, only to learn that Wallace had committed suicide. Feeling that I'd be mostly trying to parse the selection for keys to his mental state, rather than reading them for themselves, I put off finishing the thing.

Let me ( Read more... )

            My 73rd completed title for the year is The Best American Essays 2006, Lauren Slater, guest editor.  It's safe to say that I've become a devotee of this series, after reading just two volumes.  I've already bought the 2007 issue, and I've also ordered the issue that Stephen Jay Gould guest edited, the 2002.

These are a joy ( Read more... )