Essays One

This selection of essays on writing and reading showcases the acclaimed author’s “wise and brilliant . . . precise and playful” command of language.

Lydia Davis is a writer whose originality, influence, and wit are beyond compare.

Best known for her masterful short stories and translations, Davis’s gifts extend equally to her nonfiction—as she amply demonstrates in this selection of essays, commentaries, and lectures.

In this first of two volumes, her subjects range from her earliest influences to her favorite short stories, from John Ashbery’s translation of Rimbaud to Alan Cote’s painting, and from the Shepherd’s Psalm to early tourist photographs.

On display is the development and range of one of the sharpest, most capacious minds writing today.