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Imperial Library
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Index
TitlePage
Copyright Page
Table of Conents
Foreword by Robert Wilson
Chapter One: Culture and the Arts
Content Management: In praise of long-form journalism
Stardust Memories: Immigrant lyricists embraced American language with fierce love
The Perils of Pauline Kael: On not taking yourself seriously as a movie critic
Goodbye and Don’t Come Back: My problems with postmodernism
Blue Moons and Buttermilk Skies: What’s the good word tonight?
A Christmas Dinner: The frozen winter of 1944, on a base in the heel of Italy
No Second Act: John Horne Burns and The Gallery
Blondie and Dilbert: How Chic Young made me look none too bright
The Revenge of the Comic Novel: The Finkler Question joins the ranks of Man Booker Prize–winners
Singing Along with Mitch: Miller revived an American tradition
On the Trail of Sublime: Starting out at Niagara Falls
In Bed by the Last Eight: Musings about songs upon the death of a fine singer
The Writer Who Stayed: Novelist Daniel Fuchs went west and wrote screenplays for 34 years
Chapter Two: Craft of Writing
Looking for a Model: My true writing style emerged when I became a teacher
Tips: I don’t give them to writers
The 300-Word Challenge: On writing short essays
Detour Ahead: Lost with Ian Frazier
“Who Would Care about My Story?”: Successful memoirs are built from details that ring true
Hold the Emotion!: Don’t set out to write a heart-tugging memoir
Trapped by the Past: Finding a different take on John Horne Burns’s story
Memory, Memoir, and Loss: What I learned from a 9/11 firefighter
Writing for the Wrong Reasons: Publishers don’t necessarily have the answers
Rescued By Humor: More thoughts on less seriousness
A Joyful Noise: Lighten up, even when your story is dark
The Right to Write: Getting published isn’t the only reason to write your story
Chapter Three: Tech Age
Nowhere People: The downside of being well connected
No Place Like “Home”: Historian v. New York Times hinges on the meaning of “home delivery”
Me and My Relationships: Sandra is giving me up for Brad
Central Park Lite: Experiential optimization in the app brigade
Working for Tina Brown: It’s about how to communicate
Stopping Steve Martin: When giving the public what it wants is a bad idea
“Bring Back Boredom!”: Rewire multitask tendencies
E-Maledictions: It’s a life choice: I don’t have email
Chapter Four: Faraway Places
The Last of the Lone Wanderers: What elevates travel writing to literature
The Old Flotilla: Checking out Kipling’s Burma
At Home in the South Seas: Looking for James Norman Hall and Robert Louis Stevenson in Tahiti and Samoa
On The Trail of Chêng Ho: From Coral Gables, Florida, to a harbor in Tahiti
Tristes Tropiques: When screenwriter Ernest Lehman repaired, very briefly, to Tahiti
At Ease in the Stone Age: Closing the gap between Finchingfield and Irian Jaya
Chapter Five: Language
Unexpected Visitors: Why voodoo is preferable to adumbrate
Obama and the Lac Bug: Here’s hoping our president gets many more shellackings
Literate Revelry: Light verse gets no respect
No Proverbs, Please: Writing English as a second language
Yes, But: I collect self-canceling headlines, but I’m tired of them
Prisoners of Britspeak: The elocution problem with English movies
Fantasia for the Left Hand: Rehabilitation poetry for a wounded friend
Flunking Description: Why I tried to write like a Victorian novelist
Sharing the Issues: Let me tell you what I think about that
The “A” Word: What’s expected of an orthodox WASP
Chapter Six: Reverberations
Life and Work: Why plumbers are good role models for writers
No Degrees of Separation: Letting go when the kid leaves for college
Brother, Can You Spare a Job?: Songwriter Yip Harburg and Occupy Wall Street
Permission Givers: To teach is to allow and to encourage
Sacred Objects: Hall of Famer Edd Roush’s last interview
Hats Off: And then where will we stow them?
Peter McGuire’s Holiday: Summer’s final gift of unexamined time
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln: Up from Disneyland, on to Appomattox
The Overtone Years: Sympathetic vibrations at the age of 89
Acknowledgments
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