Collected Prose

"Auster really does possess the want of the enchanter."—The New York Review of Books

"[Auster] will be remembered as one of the great writers of our time."—San Francisco Chronicle

"The literary essays and prefaces in this collection are elegant and accessible . . . Much of what is offered here displays Auster's warmth, democratic instincts, and human concerns."—Hilary Mantel, Daily Telegraph (London)

"Auster's Collected Prose provides a fascinating long-exposure snapshot of a writer's private and abiding obsessions and touchstones as he oscillates between the worlds of his life and art."—The Times (London)

"Absorbing . . . [Auster's] informed enthusiasms, especially for European modernism and aspects of the avant-garde, make him a passionate, intelligent, and stimulating commentator. He writes acutely about the dilemmas which inform serious artistic decisions. These hospitable, generous pieces make one want to go immediately to the writers he discusses."—Robert Potts, The Guardian (London)

"[Paul Auster] has assembled his youthful [nonfiction] in one stout, handsome silo . . . The pieces [in Collected Prose] deserve this mid-career dais. Like fellow Brooklynites Jonathan Lethem and Colson Whitehead, Mr. Auster is a fanatic, but of an earlier generation. So while Mr. Lethem and Mr. Whitehead are specialists in comic books and television, Mr. Auster is head over heels for symbolist French poetry, New Wave cinema, and surrealist theatre. Whereas another writer might try to breathe such work to life with gusts of pretension, Mr. Auster approaches it slyly, through his own preoccupations. Mallarmé's poetry comes alive through a story about the birth of his son; poet Laura Riding is defined by her long disappearance . . . Seeing the pieces together, you realize they are the work that allowed Mr. Auster to see himself as a Writer with a capital 'W.' It's rare these days for a novelist to admit to this desire without mocking it, which explains why Mr. Auster has remained the drug of choice for readers who once would have chosen Vonnegut. He read, he wrote, and he hungered. Collected Prose would feel like a tombstone to that time if [Auster] didn't do these things so fervently still."—John Freeman, Dallas Morning News



TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE INVENTION OF SOLITUDE

HAND TO MOUTH

TRUE STORIES
The Red Notebook
Why Write?
Accident Report
It Don't Mean a Thing

GOTHAM HANDBOOK

THE STORY OF MY TYPEWRITER

NORTHERN LIGHTS
Pages for Kafka
The Death of Sir Walter Raleigh
Northern Lights

CRITICAL ESSAYS
The Art of Hunger
New York Babel
Dada Bones
Truth, Beauty, Silence
From Cakes to Scones
The Poetry of Exile
Innocence and Memory
Book of the Dead
Reznikoff x2
The Bartlebooth Follies

PREFACES
Jacques Dupin
André du Bouchet
Black on White
Twentieth-Century French Poetry
Mallarme's Son
On the High Wire
Translator's Note
The National Story Project
A Little Anthology of Surrealist Poems
The Art of Worry
Invisible Joubert
Hawthorne at Home

OCCASIONS
A Prayer for Salman Rushdie
Appeal to the Governor of Pennsylvania
The Best Substitute for War
Reflections on a Cardboard Box
Random Notes: September 11—2001—4:00 PM
Underground
NYC = USA

REFERENCES