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The Rush for Second Place by William Gaddis
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The Rush for Second Place

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The Rush for Second Place by William Gaddis
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Oct 01, 2002 | ISBN 9780142002384

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    Oct 01, 2002 | ISBN 9780142002384

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  • Oct 01, 2002 | ISBN 9781101176979

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Product Details

Praise

“Sometimes dense, but always discerning: essential for Gaddis fans and those seeking an offbeat critique of American civilization.” — Kirkus Reviews


“Gaddis (1922–1998) was a fact-checker at the New Yorker and a corporate speech-writer before coming to prominence, but published very little essay-based work. Editor Joseph Tabbi here collects 29 short and occasional pieces, some left in manuscript at the time of Gaddis’s death, others admiring encomiums to Saul Bellow or Julian Schnabel, all of which, as he notes, “create a sense of the environment in which Gaddis worked.”– Publishers Weekly

Table Of Contents

Introduction

1. “Stop Player. Joke No. 4” (1951)

2. Agape Agape: The Secret History of the Player Piano (early 1960s)

3. Treatment for a Motion Picture on “Software” (early 1960s)

4. Cover Illustrations from the Corporate Writings (A Selection)
The Growth of American Industry (For the National Association of Manufacturers)
Educational Technology Shapes the Future… Are You Ready? (For the Eastman Kodak Company)
Answers to Cancer (For General Motors/Western Electric)

5. In the Zone (1978)

6. The Rush for Second Place (1981)

7. J R Up to Date (1987)

8. An Instinct for the Dangerous Wife
(Review of More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow, 1987)

9. Erewhon and the Contract with America (1995)

10. Old Foes with New Faces (1995)

11. Occasional Writings
This Above All (1990)
J. Danforth Quayle (1992)
On Creative Writing and the National Endowment for the Arts (1994)

12. Speeches
On Receiving the National Book Award for J R (1975)
How Does the State Imagine? The Willing Suspension of Disbelief (1986)
On Receiving the National Book Award for A Frolic of His Own

13. Tributes
Dostoevski (1996)
Mothers (1996)
Julian Schnabel (1998)

Appendix:
Summary Notes on the Work in Progress (early 1960s)
Player Piano Chronology to 1929
Index

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