Best of
Writing

1978

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius


A. Scott Berg - 1978
     MAX PERKINS: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg took the literary world by storm upon its publication in 1978, garnering rave reviews and winning the National Book Award. A meticulously-researched and engaging portrait of the man who introduced the public to the greatest writers of this century, Berg's biography stands as one of the finest books on the publishing industry ever written. Unavailable for the last few years, MAX PERKINS is now being re-released (on the fiftieth anniversary of the great editor's death. The driving force behind such literary superstars as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe, Max Evarts Perkins was the most admired book editor in the world. From the first major novel he edited (Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise) to the last (James Jones's bestselling From Here to Eternity), Perkins revolutionized American literature. Perkins was tirelessly committed to nurturing talent no matter how young or unproven the writer. Filled with colorful anecdotes about everything from Perkins's struggles to convince the old guard at Scribners to publish his visionary (and often controversial) authors to his falling out with one of his most brilliant discoveries, Thomas Wolfe, MAX PERKINS reveals with insight and humor the professional and personal life of one of the most legendary figures in the history of American publishing. Given unprecedented access to the correspondence between Perkins and his writers, Berg has fashioned a compellingly thorough biography that is as entertaining as it is informative. A vivid portrait of one man's life and a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the creation of literature, A. Scott Berg's MAX PERKINS: Editor of Genius is a masterful achievement in scholarship and writing.

The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing


Richard Hugo - 1978
    The Triggering Town is Hugo's now-classic collection of lectures, essays, and reflections, all "directed toward helping with that silly, absurd, maddening, futile, enormously rewarding activity: writing poems." Anyone, from the beginning poet to the mature writer to the lover of literature, will benefit greatly from Hugo's sayd, playful, profound insights and advice concerning the mysteries of literary creation.

Silences


Tillie Olsen - 1978
    In this classic work, now back in print, Olsen broke open the study of literature and discovered a lost continent—the writing of women and working-class people. From the excavated testimony of authors’ letters and diaries we learn the many ways the creative spirit, especially in those disadvantaged by gender, class and race, can be silenced. Olsen recounts the torments of Melville, the crushing weight of criticism on Thomas Hardy, the shame that brought Willa Cather to a dead halt, and struggles of Virginia Woolf, Olsen’s heroine and greatest exemplar of a writer who confronted the forces that would silence her. This 25th-anniversary edition includes Olsen’s now infamous reading lists of forgotten authors and a new introduction and author preface.

Writing the Australian Crawl


William Stafford - 1978
    Stafford's advice to beginning poets has become a favorite text in writing programs

The New Diary: How to use a journal for self-guidance and expanded creativity


Tristine Rainer - 1978
    It has little to do with the rigid daily calendar diary you may have kept as a child or the factual travelogue you wrote to recall the Grand Canyon. Instead, it is a tool for tapping the full power of your inner resources.The New Diary is as much for those who already keep a journal as it is for those who have never kept one. It does not tell you the "right" way to keep a diary; rather, it offers numerous possibilities for using the diary to achieve your own purposes. It is a place for you to clarify goals, visualize the future, and focus your engergies; a means of freeing your intuition and imagination; a workbook for exploring your dreams, your past, and your present life.It is for everyone seeking concrete methods for dealing with personal problems. It is for women and men interested in achieving self-reliance and inner liberation, for artists and writers seeking new techniques for overcoming blocks to creativity.

The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus


Merriam-Webster - 1978
    An alphabetical listing of words, with synonyms, antonyms, definitions, and examples, includes cross references from all the words listed in each expanded entry.

The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews


Eudora Welty - 1978
    In addition to seven essays on craft, this collection brings together her penetrating and instructive commentaries on a wide variety of individual writers, including Jane Austen, E. M. Forster, Willa Cather, Anton Chekhov, William Faulkner, and Virginia Woolf.

Shakespeare's Game


William Gibson - 1978
    Superficially the outgrowth of teaching a graduate seminar in playwriting, where the author realized Shakespeare could provide all the answers to anyone’s questions, this book is really the distillation of a lifetime’s reading combined with an insider’s knowledge of the hard facts of the playwright’s life in the theater.

Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction


Meir Sternberg - 1978
    this is one of the few books on narrative worth reading and rereading, a study that will make -- or should make -- a difference in the way we read narrative." -- Nineteenth Century Fiction"This is a remarkable book: original, clear-sighted, and luminously focused on a subject that has never been explored nearly so systematically or intensively."A -- Dorrit Cohn, Harvard UniversityThis book, long out of print, is now available in a paperback edition, providing another window into one of the most exciting minds working in the areas of literary and biblical literary criticism.

Dossier on the Ascension: The Story of the Soul's Acceleration Into Higher Consciousness on the Path of Initiation


Serapis Bey - 1978
    Serapis Bey shows that the soul's reunion with God through the ascension is the goal of life for all. He gives practical keys for spiritual growth that can lead to the attainment of the ascension. The author answers the ultimate questions about life after death.

I Wish I Had a Computer That Makes Waffles--: Teaching Your Child with Modern Nursery Rhymes


Fitzhugh Dodson - 1978
    A collection of contemporary nursery rhymes with tips for writing original rhymes and a note to parents.

Off-the-Wall Mad Libs


Roger Price - 1978
    Someone asks for a part of speech: a verb, a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. We've included definitions and examples of the parts of speech in case you've forgotten. Players call out their ideas to fill in the blanks and in the end, you have a story reeling from one silly sentence to another until nothing makes sense. That's what you call a Mad Lib®, the world's greatest word game. Players have been howling with friends or laughing all to themselves for over 35 years!Now that you know what Mad Libs® are, you're ready to play Off-The-Wall Mad Libs®. From "Paul Revere" and "Albert Einstein" to "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Three Little Pigs" this zany group of Mad Libs ® will make you the hit of the party.

The Synonym Finder and The Word Finder, Two-Volume Set


J.I. Rodale - 1978
    With a simple alphabetical arrangement this book has been expanded to include thousands of new words and expressions that have entered the language in recent years, and includes clearly labelled slang and informal words and expressions.

A Grammar of the English Language: Volume One: Parts of Speech


George O. Curme - 1978
    The only complete historical and contemporary grammer of the English language with illustrative examples drawn from the earliest texts (Beowulf) and the Latest (Hemingway).

The Research Paper: Form and Content


Audrey J. Roth - 1978