A Jacques Barzun Reader: Selections from His Works

Throughout his long career, Jacques Barzun, the author of From Dawn to Decadence, has been known as a witty and graceful essayist, conversant with a wide range of subjects. Michael Murray has compiled eighty of Barzun's most remarkable short works into one comprehensive volume that will give students a full appreciation of this great writer's erudition and literary talent.

The essays in A Jacques Barzun Reader cover an astonishing array of topics, including history, philosophy, music and baseball. Barzun re-examines Diderot, Shaw, Swift, and Berlioz, and analyzes both Lincoln as a literary artist and the pleasures of reading crime novels. To read Barzun is to share in his delight at all aspects of arts and culture, and this remarkable volume shows him at his best.

Born in France in 1907, Jacques Barzun came to the United States in 1920. After graduating from Columbia College, he joined the faculty of the university, becoming Seth Low Professor of History and, for a decade, Dean of Faculties and Provost. A finalist in the National Book Awards, he received the Gold Medal for Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he was twice president. He lives in San Antonio, TX.

Michael Murray's previous books include Albert Schweitzer, Musician and French Masters of the Organ.

"Each essay yields unexpected insights, and the volume as a whole makes clear why Barzun is probably our best-known public intellectual. Challenging, satisfying, elegant." -- Kirkus Reviews