The Middle of My Tether Familiar Essays Author:Joseph Epstein Essay collection of fifteen selections. Including: — * A name without a face and a face without a name trouble the author, `Disremembrance of Things Present'. There is a slow leak in memory, it is asserted. For forty-eight hours Epstein keeps a journal of a forgetter. The sweep of things forgotten is broad. Self-analysis causes the auth... more »or to realize that his memory is concentrated on literary affairs. He notes that memories get pounded into literary shape by writers. For a writer, memory is a bank. William Maxwell and Joseph Epstein alike feel that memory is inaccurate.
* Another essay in the collection is devoted to fountain pens. Penmanship used to be an important grade school subject. Difficulty was encountered in using steel nibs. Epstein recalls for the reader the Palmer Method. Biro patented the ball point pen in 1939. As ball point pens became popular, interest in handwriting declined, (there wasn't any craft involved).
The full range of Epstein's interests is exhibited in this fine collection.« less