Gallimaufry

A Collection of Essays, Reviews, Bits

Author: Joseph Epstein

ISBN: 978-1-60419-128-8

Joseph Epstein's Gallimaufry is the fifth such volume from Axios Press and contains 58 essays. Subjects range from domestic life to current social trends to an appraisal of “contemporary nuttiness.”

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Overview

Who is the greatest living essayist writing in English? Joseph Epstein would surely be at the top of anybody’s list. Epstein is penetrating. He is witty. He has a magic touch with words, that hard to define but immediately recognizable quality called style. Above all, he is impossible to put down.

Joseph Epstein’s Gallimaufry: A Collection of Essays, Reviews, Bits is the fifth such volume from Axios Press and contains fifty-seven essays. Subjects range from domestic life to current social trends to an appraisal of “contemporary nuttiness.” It follows the much-acclaimed Essays in Biography, 2012, A Literary Education and Other Essays, 2014, Wind Sprints: Shorter Essays, 2016, and The Ideal of Culture: Essays, 2018.

After reading Epstein, we see life with a fresh eye. We also see ourselves a little more clearly. This is what Plutarch intended: life teaching by example, but with a wry smile and such a sure hand that we hardly notice the instruction. It is just pure pleasure.

  • Introduction

    Essays

    • The Bookish Life (2018)

    • Body without Soul (2020)

    • Chicago, Then and Now (2018)

    • Jewish Jokes (2018)

    • Short Attention Span (2017)

    • Intellectual Marines in Little Magazines (2008)

    • The American Language (2018)

    • University of Chicago Days (2017)

    • Frittering Prizes (1997)

    • The Tzaddick of the Intellectuals (2017)

    • The Menace of Political Correctness (2019)

    • Hail, Mommsen (2018)

    • Big Julie (2019)

    • Our Gladiators (2018)

    • Diamonds Are Forever (2016)

    • What’s the Story? (2017)

    • University Presidents (2019)

    • Immaturity on Campus (2020)

    • Heinrich Heine (2018)

    • Joseph Roth (2018)

    • Stefan Zweig (2019)

    • Vasily Grossman (2011)

    • Evelyn Waugh (2017)

    • P. G. Wodehouse (2018)

    • Tom Wolfe (2018)

    • Susan Sontag, Savant-Idiot (2019)

    • Lionel Trilling (2019)

    • Proust’s Duchesses (2018)

    • Denis Diderot (2019)

    • Isaiah Berlin (2016)

    • Johnson-Boswell (2019)

    • Stop Your Blubbering (2019)

    • George Gershwin (2009)

    • Nelson Algren (2019)

    • Essayism (2018)

    • Alcibiades (2019)

    • Big Bill Tilden (2016)

    • The Semicolon (2019)

    • The Meritocracy (2019)

    Bits and Pieces

    • Close Shaves (2018)

    • Location, Location, Location (2018)

    • Milt Rosenberg (2018)

    • Only a Hobby (2018)

    • Hello, Dolly (2018)

    • Dirty Words (2018)

    • See Me Out (2018)

    • Shabby Chic (2017)

    • Thoughts and Prayers (2018)

    • Table It (2018)

    • Don’t Hide Your Eyes, Weaponize (2019)

    • Does Not Hug (2017)

    • In Bad Taste or Not, I’ll Keep My Comic Sans (2019)

    • Yidiosyncrasies (2018)

    • Sinfood (2017)

    • A Nobel Prize for Marriage (2018)

    • Hold the Memorial (2018)

    Edward Redux

    • Edward Redux (2019)

    Original Publication Information for Essays in this Book

    Index

  • ISBN-13: 9781604191288

    Publication date: 10/07/2020

    Pages: 528

    Product dimensions: 9.00(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.70(d)

  • Selections from Gallimaufry

  • Charm: The Elusive Enchantment (2018)

    The Ideal of Culture: Essays (2018)

    Where Were We?: The Conversation Continues, with Frederic Raphael (2017)

    Wind Sprints: Shorter Essays (2016)

    Frozen in Time (2016)

    Masters of the Games: Essays and Stories on Sport (2015)

    A Literary Education and Other Essays (2014)

    Distant Intimacy: A Friendship in the Age of the Internet, with Frederic Raphael (2013)

    Essays in Biography (2012)

    Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit (2011)

    The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff: And Other Stories (2010)

    Fred Astaire (2008)

    In a Cardboard Belt!: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage (2007)

    Friendship: An Exposé (2006)

    Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy’s Guide (2006)

    Fabulous Small Jews (2003)

    Envy (2003)

    Snobbery: The American Version (2002)

    Narcissus Leaves the Pool: Familiar Essays (1999)

    Life Sentences: Literary Essays (1997)

    With My Trousers Rolled: Familiar Essays (1995)

    Pertinent Players: Essays on the Literary Life (1993)

    A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays (1991)

    The Goldin Boys: Stories (1991)

    Partial Payments: Essays on Writers and Their Lives (1988)

    Once More Around the Block: Familiar Essays (1987)

    Plausible Prejudices: Essays on American Writing (1985)

    Middle of My Tether: Familiar Essays (1983)

    Ambition: The Secret Passion (1980)

    Familiar Territory: Observations on American Life (1979)

    Divorced in America: Marriage in an Age of Possibility (1974)

Reviews

“. . . Epstein remains our most entertaining, wide-ranging, industrious, learned practitioner of both familiar and critical essays. . . . His interest in books and his fellow humans has never dimmed.”

Patrick Kurp |  Anecdotal Evidence (August 26, 2020)

“. . . Have I got the book for you. Santa Claus, take note. . . . The arrival of a new volume by Joseph Epstein, whether a single-subject book or a collection of his essays or short stories, is an event. . . . I consider Epstein to be the finest essayist and columnist on active duty today. . . . William F. Buckley Jr. . . . called Epstein “perhaps the wittiest writer alive.” And the late WFB Jr. certainly knew from witty. . . .Go ahead. Treat yourself.”

Larry Thornberry |  American Spectator (October 13, 2020)

Mr. Epstein’s style, a thing of grace and beauty, combines erudition with a Robert-Benchley-like bewilderment and self-deprecation that welcome the reader as a fellow traveler. He is never dry, pedantic, or academic. Even when he criticizes, it is with a mordant wit and never a nasty edge. Today's writers could take a lesson from him in prose style. Having enjoyed his previous book on charm, I started reading this book yesterday and couldn't put it down. Bravo again, Mr. Epstein!

Michael M. | Amazon Review (December 16, 2020)

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About the Author

Joseph Epstein

Joseph Epstein was formerly editor of the American Scholar. A long-time resident of Chicago, he has taught English and writing at Northwestern University for many years. He has written for numerous magazines including the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Weekly Standard and Commentary.

He is the author of thirty-one books, many of them collections of essays. His books include the bestselling Snobbery and Friendship as well as the short-story collections The Goldin Boys, Fabulous Small Jews, The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff, Frozen in Time and Charm: The Elusive Enchantment.

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