In 1942, Whit Burnett compiled the first edition of This Is My Best. The title page called the 93 authors (selected from a list of 169 by librarians, literary critics, and persons professionally connected with reading, writing, teaching, or publishing) the greatest living writers. The authors were given no guidelines for “best,” so even that standard is whatever each author chose. All portions of the United States are represented.

Our Adventures in Learning class will enjoy the most recent 2004 edition, grumbling of course about those of our favorites who were not included and about choices of one work where we would have selected another.

A joy of this text is the breadth of contemporary writing across genres, authors, and particular pieces we know the writers themselves chose.

We will immerse in reading and discussing with, of course, in class writing to clarify our own responses to “surprise insights that only an author can know.”

Required Text
This Is My Best
Retha Powers and Kathy Kiernan, editors
ISBN-10: 0-8118-4829-9