In this collection of 17 essays written over an eight-year period, Kirby (English, Florida State U.) addresses issues related to the making and consuming of literature. Topics include the characteristics of successful writers, the importance of book lovers' personal preferences, and the changes in the profession of English over the past fifty years. The essays have been previously published in various journals. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Rather than taking on the book's physicality (see review of A Book of Books above), Florida State University professor of English David Kirby uses lists of favorites to answer the question What Is a Book? in the title piece from his new collection of critical essays. Kirby finds that for most people "what counts is the personhood, not of the author, but of the book"-that novels can contain, and become, the most reliable figures of our lives. Others among the 17 essays here wonder "Is There a Southern Poetry?" and "What Is a Critic?," and come up with equally thoughtful responses. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

This book is good enough to revive the interest of general readers in books about literature. Kirby (English, Florida State Univ.), the author of many books of poetry, including The House of Blue Light, as well as several works of criticism, has gathered 17 essays so clear, relevant, and far-reaching as to address all the major working parts of literature. The book attempts to redefine the four essential components of the act of reading by posing and then answering four questions: What is a reader? What is a writer? What is a critic? and What is a book? After a brief general essay on each question, Kirby gives us three or four refreshingly witty, beautifully written, and accessible essays on topics that illustrate the nature of each of these "players" in the literary enterprise. The essays range widely and offer clear explanations without being judgmental, covering who's who and what's what in critical theory while giving a short history of reviewing and the role of criticism. In addition, Kirby confronts the claims of "outlaw poetry," examines the idea of the canon, and gives his own views on writers from Emerson, Poe, and Twain to James Dickey, Charles Wright, and Susan Montez. An important and useful book that is also surprisingly pleasurable and entertaining to read; highly recommended. [Kirby is a longtime LJ reviewer.-Ed.]-Paul D'Alessandro, Portland P.L., ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

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Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xv
What is a Reader?
What Is a Reader?	p. 3
What is a Writer?
What Is a Writer?	p. 19
Breakfast with the Cumaean Sibyl, or A Poet's Education	p. 31
Don't Know Much about History: Sameness versus Originality in Poetry	p. 48
Is There a Southern Poetry?	p. 72
The Poet as Pitchman: James Dickey, American Poet	p. 87
What is a Critic?
Emerson, Poe, and American Criticism in the Nineteenth Century	p. 93
Slouching toward Baltimore: Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism	p. 102
What Is a Critic?	p. 117
Mr. Post-Everything: The Life and Times of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch	p. 128
"The Thing You Can't Explain": Theory and the Unconscious	p. 138
Reviewers in the Popular Press and Their Impact on the Novel	p. 150
M. L. Rosenthal and Our Life in Poetry	p. 159
What is a Book?
Ghosts and Gadabouts: Gothic and Picaresque in the American Novel	p. 165
Born in the Marketplace: The Emergence of the American Novel	p. 174
It Isn't about America, It Is America: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn	p. 183
What Is a Book?	p. 186
Bibliography	p. 201
Index	p. 209

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