Francis Fergusson was one of the foremost American literary critics and scholars of the twentieth century. A man of the theater as well as a man of letters, Fergusson's versatility and mastery traversed a wide range of intellectual disciplines. As George Core notes: "one of the most remarkable aspects of Fergusson's criticism is that it stands comfortably, at ease, with the best work stemming from diverse schools of criticism that are sometimes in conflict—the New Critics, the New York intellectuals, the myth critics and various distinguished critics of the modern theater." Though allied with the New Critics, Fergusson was intellectually capacious enough to be associated with many critical schools of vastly different persuasions. R.W.B. Lewis once remarked of this respected original that "his critical theories and practices possess a severely beautiful purity." Sallies of the Mind is a collection of Fergusson's essays drawn from a variety of virtually unattainable works. It incorporates Fergusson's representative criticism on such major authors as Dante, Shakespeare, James, and Eliot; on myths as well as action; on the modern stage; and on the modern novel. Essays in this collection include: "T.S. Eliot and His Impersonal Theory of Art" "Humanism" "Maritain's Creative Intuition" "Two Perspectives on European Literature" "Two Acts from Dante's Drama of the Mind" "The Divine Comedy as a Bridge across Time" "Hamlet" "Measure for Measure" "Eugene O'Neill" "Exiles and Ibsen's Work" "Oedipus According to Freud, Sophocles, and Freud" "The Theater of Paul Valery" "D.H. Lawrence's Sensibility" and "The Drama in The Golden Bowl." Francis Fergusson's criticism endures not only owing to its originality, depth, and range but also to its classically austere clarity of style. Looking at the present-day critical scene, we see few who match Fergusson's intelligence, learning, and verve. Sallies of the Mind is a tribute to his legacy as well as to the themes he treats.

Loose Sallies is a new collection of essays from an experienced writer who also happens to be a full time practicing lawyer. In this stimulating and provocative volume, Daniel J. Kornstein turns his searching eye and fluent pen to a number of topics of interest to all of us. The first group of essays contains Kornstein's original thoughts on the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, a subject that affects us every day. Next he explores the most treasured part of our Constitution: our precious civil liberties. From there the author describes some interesting personalities and their lives. The final section is a miscellany of essays on subjects as varied as: the similarities between politics and litigation, whether private schools should be abolished, Bill Clinton and the draft, anti semitism in New York and London, and Steve Jobs and Ayn Rand. All in all, Loose Sallies is a virtuoso performance, a tour de force, by one of our finest essayists.

Over time, one gets observant as well as curious over the frailties of fellow humans. Being a student of literature, I was learning the more sensitive ways of responding to human vagaries. So when my friend asked me for some light stuff, I put down my ideas, coupled with a touch of humor, and sent off these skits to him. Thus came about these lighthearted musings on fellow humans. Some of the essayists I had to teach in the classroom, like Steele, Goldsmith, and Lamb, furnished me the tone, style, and attitude. Though these pieces deal with a common man's responses to experience, they present the uncommon man's sensibilities. It is this, if any, that makes these skits interesting to me and the likes of me, hopefully.

Sixteen years’ worth of incisive essays by the great poet and memoirist “Witty, gritty poet and memoirist Kleinzahler” (Publishers Weekly) has gathered the best of sixteen years’ worth of essays, remembrances, and reviews in this scabrous and essential collection, setting down his thoughts about great poets and bad poets, about kvetching fiction writers and homicidal musicians, about eccentric critics and discerning nobodies, always with insight and humor, and never suffering fools gladly. Here, in Sallies, Romps, Portraits, and Send-Offs, August Kleinzahler eulogizes famous friends, warts and all (Thom Gunn, Christopher Middleton, Leonard Michaels); leads the charge in carving up a few bloated reputations (E. E. Cummings, Richard Brautigan); and sings the praises of unjustly neglected masters (Lucia Berlin, Kenneth Cox). He also turns the spotlight on himself in several short, delightful memoirs, covering such subjects as his obsessive CD collecting, the eerie effects of San Francisco fog, and the terrible duty of selling of his childhood home.

Agnostic mores versus believers’ morals: That is the essence of the civil war which has already commenced, and which envelopes us now. Which side shall be the victor? Do we want a world full of lies, doublespeak, media manipulation, no sexual boundaries, rampant drug use, and where hard work does not matter? The suave secular modernists who use mores, not morals, to justify their mistaken and dangerous words and actions act as if the battle is already done and that their side is the victor. Written from the standpoint of a soldier about to make an assault or sortie onto the battlefield, these five essays illustrate this stark clash of ideas, illuminate the dangerous ramifications surrounding these issues of the day, and suggest that a return to a life of prayer and faith is the only way to find a better life.