Selected by acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates, a remarkable anthology of fifty-five outstanding essays on a variety of topics features contributions by F. Scott Fitzgerald, W. E. B. DuBois, James Baldwin, Eudora Welty, Stephen Jay Gould, John Updike, Saul Bellow, Joan Didion, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, John McPhee, Rachel Carson, and other notabl
| Foreword |
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| Introduction |
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1 | (5) |
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6 | (14) |
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20 | (8) |
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28 | (17) |
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The Moral Equivalent of War |
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45 | (12) |
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57 | (14) |
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71 | (4) |
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The Devil Baby at Hull-House |
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75 | (15) |
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Tradition and the Individual Talent |
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90 | (8) |
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98 | (9) |
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107 | (7) |
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How It Feels to Be Colored Me |
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114 | (4) |
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118 | (13) |
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What Are Master-pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them |
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131 | (8) |
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139 | (14) |
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153 | (6) |
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The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch |
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159 | (12) |
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Knoxville: Summer of 1915 |
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171 | (5) |
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176 | (3) |
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179 | (7) |
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Insert Flap ``A`` and Throw Away |
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186 | (4) |
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190 | (3) |
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193 | (6) |
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199 | (15) |
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214 | (6) |
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220 | (19) |
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239 | (7) |
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246 | (6) |
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A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails |
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252 | (11) |
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Letter from Birmingham Jail |
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263 | (17) |
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280 | (8) |
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288 | (15) |
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303 | (10) |
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The Way to Rainy Mountain |
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313 | (6) |
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The Apotheosis of Martin Luther King |
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319 | (8) |
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327 | (15) |
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings |
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342 | (16) |
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358 | (3) |
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The Search for Marvin Gardens |
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361 | (12) |
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The Doomed in Their Sinking |
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373 | (10) |
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383 | (12) |
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395 | (17) |
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Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying |
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412 | (9) |
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421 | (26) |
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Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood |
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447 | (20) |
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The Solace of Open Spaces |
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467 | (10) |
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477 | (13) |
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490 | (7) |
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Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All |
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497 | (10) |
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507 | (13) |
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The Creation Myths of Cooperstown |
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520 | (12) |
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Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant |
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532 | (17) |
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549 | (4) |
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553 | (11) |
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564 | (5) |
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| Biographical Notes |
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569 | (22) |
| Appendix: Notable Twentieth-Century American Literary Nonfiction |
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