At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman

In At Large and At Small, Anne Fadiman returns to one of her favorite genres, the familiar essay—a beloved literary tradition recognized for both its intellectual breadth ("at large") and its miniaturist focus ("at small"). With the combination of humor and erudition that has distinguished her as one of our finest essayists, Fadiman draws us into twelve of her personal obsessions, from her slightly sinister childhood enthusiasm for catching butterflies to her monumental crush on Charles Lamb, from her wistfulness for the days of letter-writing to the challenges and rewards of moving from the city to the country.

Many of these essays were composed "under the influence" of the subject at hand. Fadiman wolfed down pint after pint after pint of ice cream while divulging her passion for Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip and her brother's homemade Liquid Nitrogen Kahlúa Coffee (recipe included); she maintained a hypercaffeinated high while recounting Balzac's coffee addiction; and she stayed up till dawn to wfrite about being a night owl, examining the rhythms of our circadian clocks and sharing such insomnia cures as her father's nocturnal word games and Lewis Carroll's mathematical puzzles. At Large and At Small is a delightful collection of essays, imbued with Fadiman's characteristic love of life, literature, family, and esoteric lore, and may herald a revival of a long-cherished genre.

Anne Fadiman is the Francis Writer-in-Residence at Yale. She is the author of Ex Libris (FSG, 1998) and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (FSG, 1997, recipient of a National Book Critics Circle Award), and the editor of Rereadings (FSG, 2005).