Preface xiii

Introduction: Reading and Writing 1

How to Tame a Wild Tongue Gloria Anzaldúa 30

Facts on the Ground Kwame Anthony Appiah 42

Of Studies Francis Bacon 52

Road Warrior Dave Barry 55

Toys Roland Barthes 59

Letter to His Son Lord Chesterfield 62

Casa: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood Judith Ortiz Cofer 64

Calculated Risks K.C. Cole 70

Natural Selection Charles Darwin 80

On Self-Respect Joan Didion 92

Living Like Weasels Annie Diilard 97

teaming to Read and Write Frederick Douglass 102

Joyas Voladoras Brian Doyle 108

About Men Gretei Ehrlich 112

Living with Music Ralph Ellison 116

The Value of Science Richard Feynman 126

Arriving at Perfection Benjamin Franklin 133

The Company Man Ellen Goodman 137

More Than Just a Shrine-Ellis Island Mary Gordon 140

On the Pleasure of Hating William Hazlitt 146

Dwellings Linda Hogan 157

The Colonel Michael Hogan 263

Salvation Langston Hughes 169

How It Feels to Be Colored Me Zora Neale Hurston 172

Nowhere Man Pico Iyer 177

On Seeing England for the First Time Jamaica KinGaid 181

Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King, Jr. 192

Why We Crave Horror Movies Stephen King 209

On Discovery Maxine Hong Kingston 222

The Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln 215

The Morals of the Prince Niccolo Machiavefli 217

Cat People us. Dog People Laura Miller 226

The Way to Rainy Mountain N. Scott Momaday 233

Of Smells Michel de Montaigne 240

Are You Somebody? Nuala O'Faolain 243

Shooting an Elephant George Orwell 246

Under the Influence Scott Russell Sanders 254

Cyclops David Sedaris 268

The World Is All That Is the Case Lee Siegel 274

A Woman'sBeauty: Put-Down or Power Source? Susan Sontag 284

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions Elizabeth Cady Stanton 288

Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space Brent Staples 292

A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift 296

Mother Tongue Amy Tan 305

Why I Went to the Woods Henry David Thoreau 312

And Ain't I a Woman? Sojourner Truth 319

Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self Alice Walker 321

Once More to the Lake E.B. White 329

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft 336

The Death of the Moth Virginia Woolf 340

Credits 345

Index 349