Literary Genius

Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English and American Literature / Wood engravings by Barry Moser / 246-page hardback / 7.38" x 9.25" / ISBN 978-1-58988-035-1 / Publication Date: October 2007 Our finest essayists discuss six centuries of literary genius. "Genius is one of those words upon which the world has agreed to form no clear consensus," Joseph Epstein tells us in his introduction. How then shall we define "literary genius"? In this collection, twenty-five contemporary authors endeavor to answer that question by considering twenty-five classic writers and their enduring works. We learn that, more important than mere originality or creativity, it is the ability to make us experience the world in new ways that sets these writers apart. "My task," Joseph Conrad wrote, "is by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel—it is above all to make you see. That—and no more, and it is everything." Wood-engraved portraits and illustrations by renowned arti