Final Fridays

For decades, acclaimed author John Barth has strayed from his Monday–through–Thursday–morning routine of fiction–writing and dedicated Friday mornings to the muse of nonfiction. The result is Final Fridays, his third essay collection, following The Friday Book (1984) and Further Fridays (1995). Sixteen years and six novels since his last volume of non–fiction, Barth delivers yet another remarkable work comprised of 27 insightful essays.



With pieces covering everything from reading, writing, and the state of the art, to tributes to writer–friends and family members, this collection is witty and engaging throughout. Barth's "unaffected love of learning" (San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle) and "joy in thinking that becomes contagious" (Washington Post), shine through in this third, and, with an implied question mark, final essay collection.

John Barth was born in Cambridge, Maryland, and attended Johns Hopkins University before writing his celebrated first novel, The Floating Opera, in 1956. Since then, he has produced more than fifteen collections of short stories, essays, and novels that have won prestigious accolades, including the National Book Award and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award. He divides his time between Maryland and Florida.