Of Essays and Norton Readers
The ever-extraordinary Anne Fernald has just put up a post asking for recommendations of essays , since she is on the advisory board for The Norton Reader and they're planning a new edition. I have an extraordinary fondness for The Norton Reader , though some of that fondness is, as they say, extra-textual. The textual fondness is that I think it's a wonderfully generous selection of stuff -- in fact, I like it so much I've assigned the book in classes, and if I ever taught such a class again, I'd almost certainly use it again. The extra-textual fondness is entirely for John C. Brereton , one of the main editors of the book, who, almost exactly one year ago, had the excellent taste to marry one of my best friends and mentors. So I care a lot about The Norton Reader . And I like essays. Thus, while my students were taking tests this afternoon, I thought about essays to recommend to the folks at the NR. My thoughts are all a-jumble on this topic, though, because I har...