This first collection of essays by distinguished novelist and poet Kay Boyle spans a period of more than fifty years of her remarkable life. Included are essays on writers and writing, on the body politic, and on the human condition, as well as a personal recollection of her family beginnings. From the expatriate years in France, when she published in the now-legendary literary magazines of the epoch, through the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960's, to her continuing work for Amnesty International today, Miss Boyle has 'spent a lifetime speaking for the voiceless and acting for the inactive, as this collection impressively attests' (New York Times Book Review).
