About the Author

Book excerpt: "Companion Book to Edition & Impressions: Twenty Years on the Book Beat The final quarter of the last century was a period of extraordinary fervor in American letters. About the Author: Inside the Creative Process collects together more than forty of Nicholas Basbanes's interviews and essays that grew from this unique period of publishing. About the Author publishes for the first time the full interviews with important writers such as novelists A. S. Byatt, Joseph Heller, Edna O'Brien, and Kurt Vonnegut; the critic Alfred Kazin a few months before he died; and columnist Jimmy Breslin just after he had suffered an aneurysm. With the loss of so many of these writers and the imposing behemoth called the Internet, this sort of collection may never again be culled from the morning papers. As alive and refreshing as the day they were published, About the Author explores the creative process that was--and is--the foundation of books and publishing. This superbly crafted edition of About the Author is styled after the limited edition of Editions & Impressions. It is bound in a delightful hunter green linen-finished cloth on the spine with matching khaki toned cloth on the boards. The khaki toned slipcase with the book is embossed in gold foil. The book includes a hunter green ribbon bookmark and matching headbands. The limited edition is printed on Mohawk Superfine smooth finish stock in a soft-white shade, and is Smythe sewn into its binding. A total of 255 copies will be signed and numbered, and 250 will be for sale."--Publisher's website.