E. L. Doctorow held the Glucksman Chair in American and English Letters at New York University.

Whether he's contemplating the irony of our "God-soaked country" being officially secular, or his father's love of Edgar Allan Poe, "our greatest bad writer" (for whom he was named Edgar), or deriding the "mendacity" of politicians, Doctorow is here, as in his fiction, a wordsmith of the first order. It's a pleasure to read these essays--some autobiographical, some literary, some dealing with issues of the day--full of memorable phrases and evocative images, as well as incisive ideas.

• Emerson Childhood of a Writer Kenyon Texts That Are Sacred, Texts That Are Not First Novel Deism The Little Bang Why We Are Infidels The Politics of God The Civil Religion Canto XXV Apprehending Reality Paradise Lost Literature as Religion