In his literary journalism, critic, novelist, and memoirist Robert J. Begiebing offers readers a rare view of American authors at transformative moments in their careers. Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, poets Sydney Lea and Wesley McNair, and novelists Merle Drown and Norman Mailer are among the authors profiled and reviewed. And readers will discover connections between the literary and the political essays. Begiebing’s provocative political commentary addresses issues as significant to us today as they were at the time of original periodical publication: the nature of American conservatism, the political economy of our budgetary priorities, and the looming global ecological crisis.