“The Art of the Essay” first appeared as the introduction to Best American Essays, 1986, edited by Hardwick. The text published here for the most part follows the version printed in the September 14, 1986, edition of The New York Times, under the title “Its Only Defense: Intelligence and Sparkle.”
“New York City: Crash Course” first appeared in Granta and was later included in Best American Essays, 1991, edited by Joyce Carol Oates.
“Lexington, Kentucky” first appeared in Harper’s Magazine under the title “Going Home in America: Lexington, Kentucky.” Hardwick would later incorporate passages revised from this essay into her novel Sleepless Nights.
“Puritanical Pleasures” first appeared in House & Garden under the title “Puritanical Pleasures: Summer in Maine.”
“The Émigré” first appeared in Esquire.
“Balanchine” first appeared in Vogue as “Balanchine: What Movement and Space Can Do for the Spirit.”
“Faye Dunaway” first appeared in Vogue as “Faye Dunaway: The Face in the Dark.”
“Knowing Sontag” first appeared in Vogue.
“Katherine Anne” first appeared in Vanity Fair.
“Things” first appeared in House & Garden.
“Elections” first appeared in Vogue as “Elections: Renewal or Just Replacement?”
“Mr. America” first appeared in The New York Review of Books.
“Piety and Politics” first appeared in The New York Review of Books under the title “The Carter Question II: Piety and Politics.”
“The Kennedy Scandals” first appeared in The New York Review of Books.
“The Menendez Show” first appeared in The New York Review of Books.
“Family Values” first appeared in The New York Review of Books.
“Head Over Heels” first appeared in The New York Review of Books.
“On Behalf of the Unborn” first appeared in The Washington Post as “On Behalf of the Unborn: A Celibacy Amendment.”
“The American Woman as Snow Queen” first appeared in Commentary as “The American Woman as Snow Queen: Our Self-Contemptuous Acceptance of Europe’s Myth.”
“The Feminine Principle” first appeared in Mademoiselle with the following note: “This article is based on a lecture delivered at Barnard College as part of a series of seminars in American Civilization.”
“Women Re Women” first appeared in Mademoiselle.
“The Ties Women Cannot Shake, and Have” first appeared in Vogue.
“Is the ‘Equal’ Woman More Vulnerable” first appeared in Vogue.
“Suicide and Women” first appeared in Mademoiselle.
“When to Cast Out, Give Up, Let Go” first appeared in Mademoiselle under the title “When to Cast Out, Give Up, Let Go . . . Or How to Discard the Single Glove, the Strangling Memory, Even Love.”
“On Reading the Writings of Women” first appeared in The Columbia University Forum.
“Reading” first appeared in Daedalus.
“Southern Literature: The Cultural Assumptions of Regionalism” first appeared in Southern Literature in Transition: Heritage and Promise.
“Basic Englishing” first appeared in The New York Review of Books.
“Parsifal” first appeared in Vogue as “Parsifal: In the Cave of Ourselves.”
“The Eternal Heartbreak” first appeared in Antaeus.
“The Heart of the Seasons” first appeared in House & Garden and was later included in Best American Essays, 1988, edited by Annie Dillard.
“Notes on Leonardo and the Future of the Past” first appeared in Art in America.
“Grits Soufflé” first appeared in The New Yorker.
“Christmas Past” first appeared in The New Yorker.