ELIZABETH ROSEN MAYER
The Portrait, South Loop Review, no. 15.
NOREEN MCAULIFFE
Under the Locust Tree, Baltimore Review, Winter.
REBECCA MCCLANAHAN
Adopt a Bench, The Sun, March.
KEVIN MCGRATH
Walking to Windward, Harvard Review, no. 44.
KATE MCINTYRE
Revenge of the Spider King, Redivider, vol. 10, no. 2.
CHARLES MCLEOD
Steps for Home Tooth Extraction, Berkeley 2006, Hobart, no. 14.
KAT MEADS
Margaret Mitchell’s Dump, Gargoyle, no. 60.
SARAH MENKEDICK
Homing Instincts, Vela Magazine, July 1.
BRENDA MILLER
Dress Code, Passages North, Winter.
ANDER MONSON
Dear Defacer, A Public Space, Winter.
SARAH FAWN MONTGOMERY
Lesson in Cartography, Crab Orchard Review, Summer/Fall.
RICK MOODY
Election Diary 2012, Black Clock, Winter/Spring.
DINTY W. MOORE
Of Striped Food and Polar Bears, TriQuarterly, January 15.
RUTH MOOSE
A Key as Big as Your Hand, Southeast Review, no. 1.
JENNIFER MORGAN
Inshallah, Event, vol. 42, no. 3.
FREDERIC MORTON
Othello’s Sons, Harper’s Magazine, September.
NICK NEELY
Nasty, CutBank, no. 79.
TAM LIN NEVILLE
The Skirts and Blouses Are Hatched, New Ohio Review, Fall.
JACOB NEWBERRY
A Thousand Nations, Kenyon Review, Winter.
CAITRIN NICOL
Do Elephants Have Souls? New Atlantis, Winter.
DELANEY NOLAN
Soyleyelim, Chattahoochee Review, Spring.
JAMES NOLAN
Sixty-Eight, Boulevard, Spring (no. 84).
GEOFFREY NORMAN
A Great Battlefield, Weekly Standard, July 8–15.
THOR R. NYSTROM
Specter of Silence, Iowa Review, Fall.
LAURIE OLIN
From Sundogs to the Midnight Sun: An Alaskan Reverie, Hudson Review, Spring.
MARK OPPENHEIMER
Forty Thoughts on a Fourth Daughter, Medium, October 23.
ADRIANA PARAMO
Praying Alone in Qatar, The Sun, December.
WILLIAM SIDNEY PARKER
I’m No Expert but; or An Idea Among the Laity, Labletter, no. 15.
JERICHO PARMS
A Chapter on Red, Hotel Amerika, Spring.
DUSTIN PARSONS
Pumpjack, Crab Orchard Review, Summer/Fall.
ANITTAH PATRICK
The Math, Bellingham Review, Spring.
ANNIE PENFIELD
The Half-Life, Fourth Genre, Spring.
SAM PICKERING
Poetry at the Breakfast Table, Sewanee Review, Spring.
LESLIE PIETRZYK
Joy to the World, PMS, no. 12.
STEVEN PINKER
Science Is Not Your Enemy, New Republic, August 19.
NORMAN PODHORETZ
“My Negro Problem—and Ours” at 50, Commentary, May.
ROLF POTTS
Why I Follow Football, Barrelhouse, no. 12.
CHRISTINE POUNTNEY
Coming Apart, Brick, Winter.
RICHARD PRINS
Crying for the Razor in Dar es Salaam, Transition, no. 110.
LIA PURPURA
Dot, Normal School, Fall.
JILL SISSON QUINN
The Myth of Home, Ecotone, Spring.
ANNE RAEFF
Lorca in the Afternoon, ZYZZYVA, Fall.
SANDRA RAMIREZ
Stray, Free State Review, Summer.
JONATHAN RAUCH
The Case for Hate Speech, The Atlantic, November.
WENDY RAWLINGS
Weight Watching, Cincinnati Review, Winter.
ANNA REDSAND
Naturalization, Clockhouse, Summer.
ADENA REITBERGER
Here Is Always Somewhere Else, Black Warrior Review, Fall/Winter.
CHELSIA A. RICE
Tough Enough to Float, Los Angeles Review, Spring.
EMILY RICH
On the Road to Human Rights Day, Little Patuxent Review, Winter.
COLIN ROBINSON
Paddleball, Granta, Winter (no. 122).
WALTER ROBINSON
Nurse Clappy Gets His, Literary Review, vol. 56, no. 4.
JOHN G. RODWAN, JR.
Carlessness, Midwestern Gothic, Fall.
JAMES SILAS ROGERS
The Sadly Sweet Season, Notre Dame Magazine, Autumn.
PEGGY ROSENTHAL
An Apprenticeship in Affliction: Waiting with Simone Weil, Image, Spring (no. 77).
EARL ROVIT
The Waning of the Wayne, Sewanee Review, Winter.
ANASTASIA RUBIS
Girl Falling, North American Review, Summer.
MARY RUEFLE
My Private Property, KROnline, October 9.
PAUL RUFFIN
Laying that Awful Burden Down, Boulevard, no. 85/86.
KENT RUSSELL
Mithradates of Fond du Lac, The Believer, June.
OLIVER SACKS
Speak, Memory, New York Review of Books, February 21.
NICK SALVATO
Cringe Criticism: On Embarrassment and Tori Amos, Critical Inquiry, Summer.
SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS
A Writer’s Calling, Chautauqua, no. 10.
EVA SAULITIS
Nonexistent Black and White Photograph, Catamaran Literary Reader, Spring.
GERDA SAUNDERS
Telling Who I Am Before I Forget: My Dementia, Georgia Review, Winter.
LYNNE SHARON SCHWARTZ
You Gotta Have Heart, Agni, no. 77.
MIMI SCHWARTZ
If You Are Absolutely Certain, I Get Suspicious, TriQuarterly, June 3.
KAETHE SCHWEHN
Tailings, Witness, Spring.
MARTIN SCORSESE
The Persisting Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema, New York Review of Books, August 15.
ROGER SCRUTON
Scientism in the Arts and Humanities, New Atlantis, Fall.
DAVID SEARCY
Mad Science, The Paris Review, Spring.
MICHELLE SEATON
The Jet Set, Lake Effect, Spring.
DAVID SEDARIS
Company Man, The New Yorker, June 3.
PETER SELGIN
My New York: A Romance in Eight Parts, Missouri Review, Summer.
SUSAN ELIZABETH SHEPHARD
Wildcatting, Buzzfeed, July 25.
BILL SHERWONIT
Of Waxwings and Goshawks and Standing Up to Power, Anchorage Press, January 17–23.
DAVID SHIELDS
I Can’t Stop Thinking Through What Other People Are Thinking, New Letters, vol. 79, nos. 3 and 4.
GARY SHTEYNGART
O.K., Glass, The New Yorker, August 5.
ROBERT ANTHONY SIEGEL
Unreliable Tour Guide, Ploughshares, Winter.
FLOYD SKLOOT
Elliptical Journey, Post Road, no. 24.
JOHN SKOYLES
A Stay at Yaddo, Five Points, vol. 15, no. 3.
MAURA SMITH
Omphalos, Bellevue Literary Review, Spring.
PATRICIA SMITH
83 Problems, A–Z, Jabberwock Review, Winter.
SUZANNE FARRELL SMITH
The Pearl, Post Road, no. 25.
KATHARINE SMYTH
Prey, The Point, Fall.
REBECCA SOLNIT
Mysteries of Thoreau, Unsolved, Orion, May/June.
PATTY SOMLO
If We Took a Deep Breath, Gold Man Review, no. 2.
BRIAN JAY STANLEY
Odyssey of Desire, Pleiades, Winter (vol. 33, no. 1).
KATHRYN STARBUCK
Nazis, Sewanee Review, Winter.
DAVID STEVENSON
A Cultural History of the Ice Axe, in Eight Fascicles, Rock & Ice, ascent issue.
DEBORAH STONE
Picking Pebbles, Boston Review, May/June.
SUSAN STRAIGHT
What My Brother Left Behind, The Believer, March/April.
GINGER STRAND
Company Town, Tin House, Fall (no. 57).
HAL STUCKER
Strapped, Boston Review, February.
IRA SUKRUNGRUANG
Atlas, Don’t Let Me Down, Southeast Review, no. 2.
CAROLINE SUTTON
Fin, Ascent, April 30.
BARRETT SWANSON
Perilous Aesthetics, The Point, Fall.
NEIL SWIDEY
Restart, Boston Globe Magazine, May 12.
JILL TALBOT
Autobiographies, Full Grown People, December 18.
DEBORAH THOMPSON
Scavenger Love, Chattahoochee Review, Fall/Winter.
MORITZ THOMSEN
The Bombardier’s Handbook, ZYZZYVA, Winter.
MELANIE RAE THON
Galaxies Beyond Violet, Five Points, vol. 15, nos. 1 and 2.
CAITLIN THORNBRUGH
Ahuacatl Agovago. Avocado: The Corrupt Alligator Pear, Parcel, Spring.
SALLIE TISDALE
An Uncommon Pain, Harper’s Magazine, May.
LAD TOBIN
My Fifty-Minute Hour, The Sun, August.
ALISON TOWNSEND
At the Bottom of the Ocean: Psych Ward, 1986, Feminist Studies, vol. 39, no. 2.
WILLIAM TROWBRIDGE
Ode to the Motel, River Styx, no. 90.
ZHANNA VAYNBERG
Because a Wall Fell Down, Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter.
INARA VERZEMNIEKS
The Last Days of the Baldock, Tin House, Fall (no. 57).
NATALIE VESTIN
Forms of Wanting, Water-Stone Review, no. 16.
PATRICIA VIGDERMAN
The Real Life of the Parthenon, Kenyon Review, Winter.
WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN
Life as a Terrorist, Harper’s Magazine, September.
JULIE MARIE WADE
Holy Orders, Zone 3, Spring.
JESSE WALKER
America the Paranoid, Reason, October.
NICOLE WALKER
Antibodies, Fifth Wednesday, Fall.
MARK WARREN
The Father You Choose, Esquire, August.
JOHN WATERS
The Dress That Changed My Life, Harper’s Bazaar, September.
MICHELLE WEBSTER-HEIN
Counting Apples, Ruminate, Winter (no. 30).
SARAH WELLS
Field Guide to Resisting Temptation, Brevity, May.
CAROLYN WHITE
Narrative Supplemental, Prism, Spring.
PATTI WHITE
The Sound, Gulf Coast, Summer/Fall.
COLSON WHITEHEAD
Loving Las Vegas, Harper’s Magazine, December.
A. WHITFIELD
The Garden, Prism, Fall.
LEON WIESELTIER
Crimes Against Humanities, New Republic, September 16.
JESSICA WILLBANKS
On the Far Side of the Fire, Ninth Letter, Fall/Winter.
EMILY WITT
What Do You Desire?, n+1, no. 16.
MELORA WOLFF
Masters in This Hall, Normal School, Spring.
JAMES WOOD
Why?, The New Yorker, December 9.
LIA WOODALL
Torn in Two, South Loop Review, no. 15.
RUSSELL WORKING
Us, Narrative Magazine, Stories of the Week 2013–2014.
AMANDA WRAY
Black Dolls, American Athenaeum, Summer.
KAREN WUNSCH
My Mother, Eating; or Dystalgia, a Memoir, Hotel Amerika, Spring.
KEVIN YOUNG
Blood Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring.
PAULINE YU
The Number One Funeral Home, American Scholar, Autumn.
NAOMI ZACK
More than Skin Deep, Oregon Humanities, Summer.
BEATRIZ ZALCE
You Are Here, Cimarron Review, Spring.
Notable Special Issues of 2013
American Athenaeum, Things They Carry, ed. Jan Nerenberg, Summer.
Antioch Review, Cartography with a Twist, ed. Robert S. Fogarty, Fall.
Black Warrior Review, Offal Issue, ed. Emma Sovich and staff, Spring/Summer.
Briar Cliff Review, 25th Anniversary, ed. Tricia Currans-Sheehan, no. 25.
Chattahoochee Review, The Animal, ed. Anna Schachner, Fall/Winter.
Chautauqua, Journeys & Pilgrimages, ed. Jill and Philip Gerard, no. 10.
Creative Nonfiction, Issue 50, ed. Lee Gutkind.
Daedalus, American Music, ed. Gerald Early, Fall.
December, Revival Issue, ed. Gianna Jacobson, Winter.
Gulf Coast, The “Issues” Issue, ed. Zachary Martin and Karyna McGlynn, Summer/Fall.
Hudson Review, Literature and the Environment, ed. Paula Deitz, Spring.
Lapham’s Quarterly, Animals, ed. Lewis H. Lapham, Spring.
Mānoa, Cascadia: The Life and Breath of the World, ed. Frank Stewart and Trevor Carolan, vol. 25, no. 1.
Massachusetts Review, W.E.B. Du Bois in His Time and Ours, ed. Jim Hicks, Michael Thurston, and Ellen Dore Watson, Fall.
Michigan Quarterly Review, Back to School, ed. Jonathan Freedman, Summer.
Midwestern Gothic, Creative Nonfiction Issue, ed. Jeff Pfaller and Robert James Russell, Fall.
Minerva Rising, Rebellion, ed. Kimberly Brown, no. 3.
North Dakota Quarterly, Going Global, ed. Robert W. Lewis, Spring/Summer.
Oregon Humanities, Skin, ed. Kathleen Holt, Summer.
Oxford American, Southern Music Issue, ed. Roger D. Hodge and Rick Clark, Winter (no. 83).
The Point, What Is Marriage For?, ed. Jon Baskin, Jonny Thakkar, and Etay Zwick, Fall.
Portland, Heroes, ed. Brian Doyle, Spring.
Post Road, Writing the Body: Creative Nonfiction, ed. Amy Boesky, no. 24.
Prairie Schooner, A War Portfolio, ed. Brian Turner, Winter.
The Progressive, Living Our Values, ed. Matthew Rothschild, January.
Ruminate, The Body, ed. Brianna Van Dyke, Winter (no. 30).
Slice, The Unknown, ed. Elizabeth Blachman, Celia Blue Johnson, and Maria Gagliano, no. 13.
Smithsonian, 101 Objects That Made America, ed. Michael Caruso, November.
South Dakota Review, 50th Anniversary Issue, ed. Lee Ann Roripaugh, no. 50.
Southern Humanities Review, Cultural Memoir, ed. Patricia Foster, Fall.
Southern Review, The National Book Award 1963, Revisited, ed. Chris Bachelder and Emily Nemens, Autumn.
Sport Literate, Body and Mind, ed. William Meiners, vol. 8, no. 2.
Threepenny Review, A Symposium on Revenge, ed. Wendy Lesser, Fall.
Transition, Django Issue, ed. Tommie Shelby, Glenda R. Carpio, and Vincent Brown, no. 113.
Water-Stone Review, Forms of Wanting, ed. Mary Francois Rockcastle, no. 16.
Wired, Inventing a Better World, ed. Bill Gates, December.
Witness, Redemption, ed. Maile Chapman, Spring.
Correction: The following essay was inadvertently omitted from Notable Essays of 2012: Deja Early, Virgin, Ruminate, Winter (no. 22).
Visit www.hmhco.com to find all of the books in The Best American Series®.
About the Editors
JOHN JEREMIAH SULLIVAN, guest editor, is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and the southern editor of The Paris Review. He has been the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Pushcart Prize, and an M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. He is the author of Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son and Pulphead: Essays.
ROBERT ATWAN, the series editor of The Best American Essays since its inception in 1986, has published on a wide variety of subjects, from American advertising and early photography to ancient divination and Shakespeare. His criticism
, essays, humor, poetry, and fiction have appeared in numerous periodicals nationwide.
Footnotes
1. The authorship of the Remedies has been wondered about since it was written, and its obscurity depends heavily on our failure to crack its “Anonym[o]us” mask. But a linguist at Princeton, the New Jersey–born Williamson Updike Vreeland, discovered that the book was Joseph Hall’s more than a century ago, and published the information in his Study of Literary Connections Between Geneva and England Up to the Publication of la Nouvelle Héloïse (1901). Vreeland didn’t care about Bishop Hall, not much—he was interested in the book’s translator, the zealous Swiss Calvinist Theodore Jaquemot, who rendered at least a dozen of Hall’s books into French—but Vreeland had gone to the library in Geneva and seen the only known French copy of the Remedies, titled by Jaquemot Remèdes contre les mécontentements, and it read right there on the title page, “Traduit nouvellement de l’anglais de révérend Seigneur Joseph Hall . . . 1664.” Sixteen sixty-four: Bishop Hall was seven or eight years dead by then—Jaquemot didn’t need to worry about protecting his friend’s identity. Plus, once you introduce Vreeland’s evidence, other things line up: Hall, it turns out, favored the phrase “Remedies Against” in the chapter heads of his later books, the ones he claimed; and he knew fairly well the man to whom the book is personally dedicated, Sir Edward Coke, the attorney general under Elizabeth I. The Remedies is all but certainly Joseph Hall’s. But Vreeland, not really caring about Hall and maybe not even knowing that the Remedies had long been considered a frustratingly mysterious book, didn’t broadcast the discovery, and it’s safe to say scant few scholars of English came across his study, so this tiny datum has hunkered there since 1901, waiting for the magic of just the right database and search-term combination to conjure it forth. Well, you might say, who cares? Fair enough. Probably hardly anyone anymore. But sometimes a little fact like that will ignite a constellation of things, the way you can make a strand of Christmas-tree lights come on by replacing one burned bulb. Specifically, this is how it becomes intriguing: Bishop Joseph Hall, though largely forgotten, is major. I won’t wear you out quoting four-hundred-year-old accolades. Suffice it to say that his impact and influence in and on his own time were enormous. They called him “the English Seneca.” He argued with Shakespeare in taverns and quarreled with Milton in print. He resolved spiritual controversies. He pioneered multiple prose forms in English, among them the satire, the dystopia, the Theophrastian character sketch, and the Neostoical meditation. In the 1650s, when he was old and fallen from power and sick—suffering from, among other ills, “strangury” (painful, constricted urination)—he was attended and his life prolonged by a younger, admiring friend, the writer-physician Sir Thomas Browne, who went on to quote from Hall in his own work. Thomas Browne closed Hall’s eyes. Alexander Pope read Bishop Hall. Laurence Sterne knew Bishop Hall’s sermons and used them. But most significant of all: Francis Bacon knew Hall, and is highly likely to have read his Remedies. A year later, Bacon publishes his own Essayes. Granted, Hall hadn’t used that word in his book. He’d used Discourses. But the formal and stylistic overlap between the two productions is huge. Which means we need to consider the likelihood that Joseph Hall is, if not the father, at minimum a coparent of the English essay. There is more to be learned about him.
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