"A collection of essays by editor, biographer, bibliographer, and book historian James L. W. West III, covering editorial theory, archival use, textual emendation, and scholarly annotation. Discusses the treatment of both public documents (novels, stories, nonfiction) and private texts (letters, diaries, journals, working papers)"--Provided by publisher.

The state of bibliography today (1979) -- Physical bibliography in the twentieth century (1979) -- The evolving role of bibliography (1984) -- Issues in bibliographical studies since 1942 (1992) -- Years on : bibliography then and now (2003) -- Thoughts on the centenary of The Bibliographical Society of America (2004) -- The historiography of American literary publishing (1965) -- The Bibliographical Society's News sheet, 1894-1920 (1967) -- The descriptive bibliography of American authors (1968) -- Copyright records and the bibliographer (1969) -- The periodical literature of English and American bibliography (1968) -- Indianapolis in the world of books (1973) -- Bibliography and science (1974) -- The descriptive bibliography of eighteenth-century books (1975) -- The centennial meeting and convocation of the Grolier Club (1984) -- Exhibitions at the Grolier Club (1984) -- The varieties of scholarly editing (1985) -- The fiftieth anniversary of The Bibliographical Society of the University Of Virginia (1997) -- A history of Studies in bibliography : the first fifty years (1997) -- A brief history of the English short-title catalogue in North America (1998) -- Some thoughts on catalogues (2008) -- The textual criticism of visual and aural works (2008) -- Bibliographical history as a field of study (1988).

Included in these eighteen essays by Cone are his never-before-published essay, "The World of Opera and Its Inhabitants," the unabridged version of "Music: A View from Delft," an introduction to this collection by the author himself, and a complete bibliography of his published writings. "This selection of [Cone's] writings includes all the most incandescent and influential articles. We should have had such a book long ago."—Joseph Kerman, University of California at Berkeley Winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for 1990

The definitive collection of literary essays by The New Yorker’s award-winning longtime book critic Ever since the publication of his first essay collection, The Broken Estate, in 1999, James Wood has been widely regarded as a leading literary critic of the English-speaking world. His essays on canonical writers (Gustav Flaubert, Herman Melville), recent legends (Don DeLillo, Marilynne Robinson) and significant contemporaries (Zadie Smith, Elena Ferrante) have established a standard for informed and incisive appreciation, composed in a distinctive literary style all their own. Together, Wood’s essays, and his bestselling How Fiction Works, share an abiding preoccupation with how fiction tells its own truths, and with the vocation of the writer in a world haunted by the absence of God. In Serious Noticing, Wood collects his best essays from two decades of his career, supplementing earlier work with autobiographical reflections from his book The Nearest Thing to Life and recent essays from The New Yorker on young writers of extraordinary promise. The result is an essential guide to literature in the new millennium.

Orwell was one of the most celebrated essayists in the English language, and there are quite a few of his essays which are probably better known than any of his other writings apart from Aminal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times