Thematically arranged, The Best American Essays, Fifth Edition, presents highly regarded contemporary authors at their best. The essays, selected from the popular Houghton Mifflin trade series of the same name, also cover common rhetorical modes--including narration and argumentation--thereby providing instructors optimal flexibility with respect to course approach. In the introduction, Robert Atwan offers an overview of various types of essays in order to prepare students for the readings that follow. To further prepare students, "Essayists on the Essay" offers insightful commentaries about the genre from many of today's top writers.
Robert Atwan is the founder and series editor of the annual Best American Essays. The editor of numerous anthologies, he has written on the ancient literature of the Near East and his critical essays and poetry reviews have appeared in many national periodicals. Laurance Wieder is the author of several volumes of poetry, including The Coronet of Tours; No Harm Done; The Last Century: Selected Poems; and One Hundred Fifty Psalms, a complete psalter. He has taught Bible and Ancient Authors at Cornell University.
