The Essays of Leonard Michaels

NONFICTION FROM "ONE OF THE STRONGEST AND MOST ARRESTING PROSE TALENTS OF HIS GENERATION" (LARRY MCMURTRY) Leonard Michaels was a writer of unfailing emotional honesty.His memoirs, originally scattered through his story collections,are among the most thrilling evocations of growing up inthe New York of the 1950s and '60sand of continuing to growup, in the cultural turmoil of the '70s and '80s, as a writer, teacher,lover, and reader. The same honesty and excitement shine inMichaels's highly personal commentaries on culture and art.Whether he's asking what makes a story, reviewing the history ofthe word "relationship," or reflecting on sex in the movies, he isfunny, penetrating, surprising, always alive on the page.The Essays of Leonard Michaelsis the definitive collection ofhis nonfiction and shows, yet again, why Michaels was singledout for praise by fellow writers as diverse as Susan Sontag, LarryMcMurtry, William Styron, and Charles Baxter. Beyond autobiographyor criticism, it is the record of a sensibility and of a stylethat is unmatched in American letters.

LEONARD MICHAELS (1933–2003) was the author of six collections of stories and essays as well as two novels, Sylvia and The Men’s Club. His Collected Stories and novels are available as FSG Classics.