The Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary Essays

Edited by Robert Pack and Jay Parini
(Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1989)

"Essays come in as many varieties as beans," writes Jay Parini in the foreword to this impressive collection of recent American essays, third in the anthology series from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. What ties these pieces together is simply the fact that each one, written within the last five years, represents a masterful use of the essay voice by a leading American writer.

Most notable is their diversity, ranging from an essay on Freud to one on Frost; encompassing social criticism and nature writing; spanning reflections on evolution to thoughts on the writing process; and providing common ground for poets and novelists alike. Together, these pieces represent a celebration of that loosely defined genre known as the essay, which Parini describes as more an approach than a form: "It is an exploration, a journey out that frequently becomes, in the best examples, an inward journey too."

David Haward Bain
A HOUSE AND A HOUSEHOLD

Wendell Berry
WRITER AND REGION

Harold Bloom
FREUD: THE PERFECTION THAT DESTROYS

Anatole Broyard
BEING THERE

Robert Brustein
AMERICAN THEATER IN PROCESS: CRISIS OR CHANGE?

Lawence Buell
THE PLEASURES OF REPETITION (REVISITING WHITMAN)

John Elder
THE PLANE ON SOUTH MOUNTAIN

Robert Finch
DEATH OF A HORNET

Paul Fussell
INDY

William H. Gass
GOODNESS KNOWS NOTHING OF BEAUTY: ON THE DISTANCE BETWEEN MORALITY AND ART

Gail Godwin
MY FACE

Stephen Jay Gould
FREUD IAN SLIP