Introduction by Russell Banks "No one understands the loneliness of the long-distance writer in a tumultuous time better than Ted Solotaroff. These wise, lucid, superbly-humane essays have been mined from deep tunnels of insight and experience, and polished by a master's hand. A few, like "Writing in the Cold," have been passed around like samizdat for years, providing counsel, solace, and nerve to a generation of American writers eager to keep faith with their predecessors even as they plunge ahead into the unknown. If such a thing as a literary community still exists, or can be made to exist, then this should be one of its essential texts." --Robert Cohen