BasicBooks

PREFACE Visiting New York City for the first time in 1967, I was astonished to see at the corner of Seventy-second Street and Broadway a group of Amish men. The long beards, wide-brimmed hats, and plain black coats identified them for me as some kind of Pennsylvania Dutch. They reminded me of...

(one)The Rules About the RulesMY first lesson in integrity came the hard way. It was I960 or thereabouts and I was a first-grader at P.S. 129 in Harlem. The teacher had us all sitting in a circle, playing a game in which each child would take a turn donning a blindfold and then trying to identify...

PreßaceEach time the query is put forward, I pause and ponder. The question jis simple enough, asked by neighbors, relatives, friends, my children, and even passing strangers"What are you working on?" They rightly expect a clearly phrased reply. Yet invariably I falter: How can I extract from the...