The Norton Book of Personal Essays - Hardcover

The Norton Book of Personal Essays collects approximately fifty of the finest personal essays of the twentieth century, selected and introduced by Joseph Epstein, the man often hailed as the "premier essayist of our time." In them, some of our most admired American and British writers express their lively, candid, entertaining, thoughtful, and - above all - varied opinions. Topics range from Tangiers to a lake in Maine, from racial conflict to sky diving, from the expectations we bring to travel to the athletics of the table. Most prominent in each essay is the distinctive style of the essayist; style, as Epstein points out in his introduction, not only is what keeps literature alive but also is a personal way of looking at the world.

Joseph Epstein has been the editor of the American Scholar since 1975. His own books of essays include The Middle of My Tether, Once More Around the Block, A Line Out for a Walk, Pertinent Players, and With My Trousers Rolled (all published by Norton). He was guest editor for Best American Essays (1993) and teaches at Northwestern University. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.