best american essays of the century table of contents

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The best American essays of the century

Fifty five unforgettable essays by the finest American writers of the twentieth century. Full description

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• Description
• Foreword / by Robert Atwan
• Introduction / by Joyce Carol Oates
• Corn-pone opinions / Mark Twain
• Of the coming of John / W.E.B. Du Bois
• A law of acceleration / Henry Adams
• Stickeen / John Muir
• The moral equivalent of war / Wiiliam James
• The handicapped / Randolph Bourne
• Coatesville / John Jay Chapman /The devil baby at Hull-house / Jane Addams
• Tradition and the individual talent / T.S. Eliot
• Pamplona in July / Ernest Hemingway
• The hills of Zion / H.L. Mencken
• How it feels to be colored me / Zora Neale Hurston
• The old stone house / Edmund Wilson
• What are master-pieces and why are there so few of them / Gertrude Stein
• The crack-up / F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Sex Ex Machina / James Thurber
• The ethics of living Jim Crow: an autobiographical sketch / Richard Wright
• Knoxville: Summer of 1915 / James Agee
• The figure a poem makes / Robert Frost
• Once more to the lake / E.B. White
• Insert flap "A" and throw away / S.J. Perelman
• Bop / Langston Hughes
• The future is now / Katherine Anne Porter
• Artists in uniform / Mary McCarthy
• The marginal world / Rachel Carson
• Notes of a native son / James Baldwin
• The brown wasps / Loren Eiseley
• A sweet devouring / Eudora Welty
• A hundred thousand straightened
• nails / Donald Hall
• Letter from Birmingham jail / Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Putting daddy on / Tom Wolfe
• Notes on "Camp" / Susan Sontag
• Perfect past / Vladimir Nabokov
• The way to rainy mountain / N. Scott Momaday
• The apotheosis of Martin Luther King / Elizabeth Hardwick
• Illumination rounds / Michael Herr
• I know why the caged bird sings / Maya Angelou
• The lives of a cell / Lewis Thomas
• The search for Marvin Gardens / John McPhee
• The doomed in their sinking / William H. Gass
• No name woman / Maxine Hong Kingston
• Looking for Zora / Alice Walker
• Women and honor: some notes on lying / Adrienne Rich
• The white album / Joan Didion
• Aria: a memoir of a bilingual childhood / Richard Rodriguez
• The solace of open spaces / Gretel Ehrlich
• Total eclipse / Annie Dillard
• A drugstore in winter / Cynthia Ozick
• Okinawa: the bloodiest battle of all / William Manchester
• Heaven and nature / Edward Hoagland
• The creation myths of Cooperstown / Stephen Jay Gould
• Life with daughters: watching the miss America Pageant / Gerald Early
• The disposable rocket / John Updike
• They all just went away / Joyce Carol Oates
• Graven images / Saul Bellow

Other Authors

Oates, Joyce Carol, 1938- (Editor, Author of introduction, etc.), Atwan, Robert. (Editor)

Main Language

The best American essays of the century / Joyce Carol Oates, editor ; Robert Atwan, coeditor ; with an introduction by Joyce Carol Oates.

Fifty five unforgettable essays by the finest American writers of the twentieth century.

• Description
• Table of Contents
• Foreword / by Robert Atwan
• Introduction / by Joyce Carol Oates
• Corn-pone opinions / Mark Twain
• Of the coming of John / W.E.B. Du Bois
• A law of acceleration / Henry Adams
• Stickeen / John Muir
• The moral equivalent of war / William James
• The handicapped / Randolph Bourne
• Coatesville / John Jay Chapman
• The devil baby at Hull-house / Jane Addams
• Tradition and the individual talent / T.S. Eliot
• Pamplona in July / Ernest Hemingway
• The hills of Zion / H.L. Mencken
• How it feels to be colored me / Zora Neale Hurston
• The old stone house / Edmund Wilson
• What are master-pieces and why are there so few of them / Gertrude Stein
• The crack-up / F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Sex Ex Machina / James Thurber
• The ethics of living Jim Crow: an autobiographical sketch / Richard Wright
• Knoxville: Summer of 1915 / James Agee
• The figure a poem makes / Robert Frost
• Once more to the lake / E.B. White
• Insert flap "A" and throw away / S.J. Perelman
• Bop / Langston Hughes
• The future is now / Katherine Anne Porter
• Artists in uniform / Mary McCarthy
• The marginal world / Rachel Carson
• Notes of a native son / James Baldwin
• The brown wasps / Loren Eiseley
• A sweet devouring / Eudora Welty
• A hundred thousand straightened nails / Donald Hall
• Letter from Birmingham jail / Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Putting daddy on / Tom Wolfe
• Notes on "Camp" / Susan Sontag
• Perfect past / Vladimir Nabokov
• The way to Rainy Rountain / N. Scott Momaday
• The apotheosis of Martin Luther King / Elizabeth Hardwick
• Illumination rounds / Michael Herr
• I know why the caged bird sings / Maya Angelou
• The lives of a cell / Lewis Thomas
• The search for Marvin Gardens / John McPhee
• The doomed in their sinking / William H. Gass
• No name woman / Maxine Hong Kingston
• Looking for Zora / Alice Walker
• Women and honor: some notes on lying / Adrienne Rich
• The white album / Joan Didion
• Aria: a memoir of a bilingual childhood / Richard Rodriguez
• The solace of open spaces / Gretel Ehrlich
• Total eclipse / Annie Dillard
• A drugstore in winter / Cynthia Ozick
• Okinawa: the bloodiest battle of all / William Manchester
• Heaven and nature / Edward Hoagland
• The creation myths of Cooperstown / Stephen Jay Gould
• Life with daughters: watching the miss America Pageant / Gerald Early
• The disposable rocket / John Updike
• They all just went away / Joyce Carol Oates
• Graven images / Saul Bellow
• Biographical notes
• Appendix: Notable twentieth-century American literary nonfiction.

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The best American essays of the century

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Uploaded by YoshikoM on August 11, 2010

The best American essays of the century

By joyce carol oates.

• ★ ★ ★ 3.33 ·
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• 2 Currently reading
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Fifty five unforgettable essays by the finest American writers of the twentieth century.

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Book Details

Table of contents, edition notes.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [569]-590).

Also issued online.

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• Created August 8, 2011
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The Best American Essays of the Century Library Binding – October 10, 2001

• Print length 596 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Turtleback Books
• Publication date October 10, 2001
• Reading age 14 years and up
• Dimensions 5.8 x 1.7 x 8.8 inches
• ISBN-10 1606869825
• ISBN-13 978-1606869826
• See all details

From the Publisher

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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Turtleback Books (October 10, 2001)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Library Binding ‏ : ‎ 596 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1606869825
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1606869826
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 14 years and up
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.55 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 1.7 x 8.8 inches
• #9,790 in Essays (Books)

About the author

Joyce carol oates.

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 77% 11% 8% 1% 3% 77%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 77% 11% 8% 1% 3% 11%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 77% 11% 8% 1% 3% 8%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 77% 11% 8% 1% 3% 1%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 77% 11% 8% 1% 3% 3%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the essays terrific and the short stories good. Opinions are mixed on the entertainment value, with some finding it great reading for short times and good practice for the GRE, while others say some of the essays are boring.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the essays in the book terrific, house many important works of literature in one book, and provide a good overview. They also say the book includes well-known authors, but essays you likely haven't read before.

"... Includes well-know authors , but essays you likely haven’t read before." Read more

"...look that up and read that." This is basically the complete works of all those essays you've ever heard of and authors you've been meaning to..." Read more

"These are remarkable essays -- from Jane Addams' insightful account of how the devil baby notion thrives among women whose hard lives make them seek..." Read more

"...The writing was exquisite which was a pleasant respite from today's 24/7 verbal and informational assaults which are produced so quickley and..." Read more

Customers find the stories in the book good.

"I love this collection of essays. It is a great blend of fiction and nonfiction by many of the best American writers, philosophers, and essayists." Read more

"...The self-reflections here and the stories for the most part are amazing but I would not go back for a re-read of the entire collection, only a..." Read more

"bought this book for school. But it has a bunch of good short stories in it." Read more

" Good collection of short stories . This would also be good for a beginner author who is trying to get ideas on how to create short essays." Read more

Customers are mixed about the entertainment value of the book. Some mention that it's great reading for times when they only have a short time, and good for beginner authors who are trying to get ideas on how to. However, other customers say that some of the essays were boring and a waste of time.

"...And many more. They are great reading for the times when you only have a short time to read, and they engage you completely. And they stay with you...." Read more

"Good collection of short stories. This would also be good for a beginner author who is trying to get ideas on how to create short essays." Read more

"...20th century America, but in these cases they're overwhelmingly short, boring and a waste of time. You're better off just skipping them." Read more

" Interesting to read . I would not say I would recommend it." Read more

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