Previous editions have title: Collected prose : autobiographical writings, true stories, critical essays, prefaces, and collaborations with artists. Includes bibliographical references (pages [387]-390).
Contents:
The art of hunger -- New York babel -- Dada bones -- Ideas and things -- Truth, beauty, silence -- From cakes to stones -- The poetry of exile -- Innocence and memory -- Book of the dead -- Kafka's letters -- Reznikoff x 2 -- The Bartlebooth follies -- Poe's bones & Oppen's pipe -- Poe's bones -- Oppen's pipe -- The story of my typewriter -- Answer to a question from New York magazine -- Sentences containing the words "Charles Bernstein" -- Gotham handbook -- Postcards for Georges Perec -- Remembering Beckett -- By the book -- Twentieth-century French poetry -- Mallarme's son -- On the high wire -- Translator's note -- An evening at Shea -- The National Story Project -- A little anthology of surrealist poems -- The art of worry -- Invisible Joubert -- Running through fire -- Hawthorne at home -- Night on earth: New York -- Joe Brainard -- A life in art -- A prayer for Salman Rushdie -- Appeal to the governor of Pennsylvania -- The best substitute for war -- Banned British art in New York -- Reflections on a cardboard box -- Random notes-September 11, 2001-4:00 pm -- Underground -- NYC=USA -- Columbia: 1968 -- Talking to strangers -- Talking to strangers.
Summary:
"In this updated collection of literary essays, interviews, prefaces, personal notes, and occasional writings, including poignant and illuminating appreciations of other poets and novelists and of New York City life, Paul Auster offers not only samplings but insights into the first fifty years of his brilliant writing career. Through critical readings of literary greats such as Hawthorne, Poe, Beckett and Kafka, as well as less well-appreciated poets from George Oppen to Laura Riding, Auster celebrates the achievements of his fellow authors while probing the constraints of language and considering the relationships between writers and the works they create. In addition, through an offering of highly personal notes, essays, and interviews dating back to his student days at Columbia in the 1960s, Auster turns the light on himself, exposing readers to the myriad of topics and inspirations that have shaped his work. From sitting in the bleachers at a Mets game to discussing the Dada art movement, from witnessing the death-defying performances of high-wire artist Philippe Petit to reflecting on the events of September 11th, Auster ushers readers into his thinking across fifty years and through a wide-reaching literary world. Sprawling in scope and subject, local in outlook, Talking to Strangers paints a vivid and intimate portrait of the man behind the page who has long captivated readers around the world"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.