EDWARD ABBEY: “The Great American Desert” from The Journey Home by Edward Abbey, copyright © 1977 by Edward Abbey. Used by permission of Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
HANNAH ARENDT: “We Refugees” by Hannah Arendt. Copyright © 1943 by Hannah Arendt. (Originally appeared in The Menorah Journal, 1943.) Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc., on behalf of the Hannah Arendt Bluecher Literary Trust.
JAMES BALDWIN: “Equal in Paris” from Notes from a Native Son by James Baldwin. Copyright © 1955, renewed 1983, by James Baldwin. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston.
KENNETH BURKE: “The Status of Art,” copyright by Kenneth Burke. This article is reprinted from Counter-Statement (University of California Press) with permission of The Kenneth Burke Literary Trust.
RACHEL CARSON: “The Marginal World” from The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson. Copyright © 1955 by Rachel L. Carson, renewed 1983 by Roger Christie. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
GUY DAVENPORT: “On Reading,” copyright © 2013 by Guy Davenport, from The Guy Davenport Reader. Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint Press.
JOAN DIDION: “Notes from a Native Daughter” from Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. Copyright © 1966, 1968, renewed 1996 by Joan Didion. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Reprinted by permission of the author.
ANNIE DILLARD: “On Foot in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley” from The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New by Annie Dillard. Copyright © 2016 by Annie Dillard. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
ALBERT EINSTEIN: “The World as I See It” by Albert Einstein, copyright © Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Reprinted by permission.
LOREN EISELEY: “The Brown Wasps” from The Night Country by Loren Eiseley. Copyright © 1971 by Loren Eiseley. Copyright © 1947, 1948, 1951, 1956, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966 by Loren Eiseley. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
RALPH ELLISON: “What America Would Be Like Without Blacks,” copyright © 1960, 1988 by Ralph Ellison, from The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison by Ralph Ellison. Used by permission of Modern Library, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
NORA EPHRON: “A Few Words About Breasts,” copyright © 1972 by Nora Ephron. First printed in Esquire. Reprinted by permission of ICM Partners.
M. F. K. FISHER: “Meals for Me” by M. F. K. Fisher, copyright © The Literary Trust u/w/o M. F. K. Fisher. Reprinted by permission.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD: “My Lost City” from The Crack-Up, copyright © 1945 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
WILLIAM H. GASS: “On Talking to Oneself” from Habitations of the Word: Essays by William Gass. Copyright © 1979, 1984, and 1985 by William Gass. Reprinted by permission of the author.
EMMA GOLDMAN: “Was My Life Worth Living?” by Emma Goldman, copyright © 1934 by Harper’s Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduced from the December issue by special permission.
VIVIAN GORNICK: “The Princess and the Pea,” by Vivian Gornick. Reprinted by permission of the author.
CLEMENT GREENBERG: “Art and Culture” by Clement Greenberg. Copyright © 1961, 1989 by Clement Greenberg. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston.
ELIZABETH HARDWICK: “Billie Holiday” by Elizabeth Hardwick, originally published in The New York Review of Books. Copyright © 1976 by Elizabeth Hardwick, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
ROLANDO HINOJOSA-SMITH: “This Writer’s Sense of Place” from A Voice of My Own by Rolando Hinojosa-Smith is reprinted with permission from the publisher (© 2011 Arte Publico Press—University of Houston).
JOHN BRINCKERHOFF JACKSON, “The Stranger’s Path” from Selected Writings of J. B. Jackson, reprinted by permission of The Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico.
JAMAICA KINCAID: “In History” by Jamaica Kincaid. Copyright © 1997 by Jamaica Kincaid, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: “Beyond Vietnam,” copyright © 1967 by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., © renewed 1995 by Coretta Scott King. Reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor, New York, NY.
WAYNE KOESTENBAUM: “My 1980s” from My 1980s and Other Essays by Wayne Koestenbaum. Copyright © 2013 by Wayne Koestenbaum. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
AUDRE LORDE: “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” from Sister Outsider, published by Crossing Press, Random House Inc. Copyright © 1984, 2007 by Audre Lorde. Used herein by permission of the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, Inc.
NORMAN MAILER: “The Homosexual Villain” from Advertisements for Myself by Norman Mailer (Penguin Classics, 2018). Copyright © 1959, 2018 by Norman Mailer, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Books Ltd. All rights reserved.
NANCY MAIRS: “On Being a Cripple” from Plaintext by Nancy Mairs. Copyright © 1986 by Arizona Board of Regents. Reprinted by permission of the University of Arizona Press.
MARY MCCARTHY: “America the Beautiful” by Mary McCarthy, reprinted by permission of The Mary McCarthy Literary Trust.
H. L. MENCKEN: “The Hills of Zion,” copyright © 1926, 1949 by Penguin Random House LLC; from A Mencken Chrestomathy by H. L. Mencken. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
LEONARD MICHAELS: “My Yiddish” by Leonard Michaels, copyright © 2019 by Katharine Ogden Michaels.
N. SCOTT MOMADAY: “The Native American Voice in American Literature,” by N. Scott Momaday. Reprinted by permission of the author.
LEWIS MUMFORD: “A New York Adolescence” by Lewis Mumford. Used by permission of Gina Maccoby Literary Agency. Copyright © 1937, 1965 by Elizabeth M. Morss and James G. Morss.
CYNTHIA OZICK: “A Drugstore in Winter” from Art & Ardor by Cynthia Ozick. Copyright © 1983 by Cynthia Ozick. Reprinted with permission by Melanie Jackson Agency, LLC.
ADRIENNE RICH: “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying” from Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations by Adrienne Rich. Copyright © 2001 by Adrienne Rich. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
MARILYNNE ROBINSON: “Puritans and Prigs: An Anatomy of Zealotry” from The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought by Marilynne Robinson. Copyright © 1998 by Marilynne Robinson. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
RICHARD RODRIGUEZ: “Hispanic” from Brown: The Last Discovery of America by Richard Rodriguez. Copyright © 2002 by Richard Rodriguez. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
WILLIAM SAROYAN: “Fragments” from My Name Is Aram by William Saroyan, reprinted by permission of Pollinger Limited (www.pollingerlimited.com [inactive]) on behalf of The Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
ZADIE SMITH: “Speaking in Tongues” by Zadie Smith. Published by The New York Review of Books, 2008. Copyright © by Zadie Smith. Reproduced by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN.
SUSAN SONTAG: “Against Interpretation” from Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag. Copyright © 1964, 1966, renewed 1994 by Susan Sontag. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
WALLACE STEGNER: “The Twilight of Self-Reliance,” a Tanner Lecture on Human Values given by Wallace Stegner at the University of Utah on February 25, 1980. Reprinted by permission of the University of Utah Press.
GERTRUDE STEIN: “What Are Master-pieces?” by Gertrude Stein. Reprinted by permission of David Higham Associates Limited.
LEWIS THOMAS: “The Lives of a Cell” from Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas, copyright © 1974 by Lewis Thomas; copyright © 1971, 1972, 1973 by Massachusetts Medical Society. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
JAMES THURBER: “The Nature of the American Male” from Is Sex Necessary? by James Thurber and E. B. White. Copyright © 1929 by James Thurber and E. B. White. Reprinted by arrangement with Rosemary A. Thurber and The Barbara Hogenson Agency, Inc. and The Estate of E. B. White and ICM. All rights reserved.
PAUL TILLICH: “The Lost Dimension in Religion” by Paul Tillich © SEPS licensed by Curtis Licensing.
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE: “The View from Mrs. Thompson’s” from Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, copyright © 2005, 2007. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
EUDORA WELTY: “Ida M’Toy” from The Eye of the Story by Eudora Welty. Reprinted by the permission of Russell & Volkening as agents for Eudora Welty, copyright © 1969 by Eudora Welty, renewed in 1997 by Eudora Welty.
E. B. WHITE: “Death of a Pig” from Essays of E. B. White by E. B. White. Copyright © 1977 by E. B. White. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
EDMUND WILSON: “John Jay Chapman” from The Triple Thinkers by Edmund Wilson. Copyright © 1948 by Edmund Wilson. Copyright © renewed 1975 by Elena Wilson. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.