Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.
Here you will find another "splendid array of unpredictable and delectable essays" (Booklist), chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Louis Menand, another collection with "delights on every page" (Dallas Morning News). The Best American Essays once again earns its place as the liveliest and leading annual of its kind.
Author(s): Louis Menand, Robert Atwan
Series: (The Best American Series)
Edition: 2004
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 323
Foreword by Robert Atwan ix
Introduction by Louis Menand xiv
james agee. America, Look at Your Shame!
from Oxford American
KATHRYN CHETKOVICH. Envy 0
from Granta
jared diamond. The Last Americans 30
from Harper’s Magazine
anne fa diman. The Arctic Hedonist 48
from The American Scholar
JONATHAN FRANZEN. Caught 6l
from The New Yorker
adam gopnik. The Unreal Thing 86
from The New Yorker
laura hillenbrand. A Sudden Illness 96
from The New Yorker
tim judah. Passover in Baghdad 114
from Granta
WAYNE KOESTENBAUM. My ’8os 128
from Artforum
Leonard Michaels. My Yiddish 138
from The Threepenny Review
ben miller. Bix and Flannery 152
from Raritan
rick moody. Against Cool 160
from Gingko Tree Review
kyoko mori. Yarn 194
from Harvard Review
susan orlean. Lifelike 203
from The New Yorker
ALEX ROSS. Rock IOI 213
from The New Yorker
Oliver sacks. The Mind's Eye 225
from The New Yorker
luc sante. My Lost City 246
from The New York Review of Books
mark slouka. Arrow and Wound 257
from Harper’s Magazine
janna malamud smith. My Father Is a Book 269
from The Threepenny Review
Gerald stern. Bullet in My Neck 277
from The Georgia Review
Tennessee williams . Amor Perdida 287
from Michigan Quarterly Review
Cynthia zarin. An Enlarged Heart 293
from The New Yorker
Biographical Notes 311
Notable Essays of 2003 316
