SPRING
CHICAGO

CRITICAL
UNDERSTANDING

The Powers and Limits of Pluralism
Wayne C. Booth

Through extended accounts of three 
major pluralists, Ronald S. Crane, 
Kenneth Burke, and M. H. Abrams, 
and shorter considerations of many 
others, Booth pursues the problems 
raised for anyone who rejects the 
search for some single, unitary, 
perhaps even “scientific" resolution 
to conflicting critical methods.

Cloth 352 pages $15.00 
February

ON THE MARGINS OF 
DISCOURSE

The Relation of Literature to Language
Barbara Herrnstein Smith

"Barbara Herrnstein Smith is one of a very few 
outstanding theorists of literature writing today, 
and her new book is a' major contribution to the 
contemporary critical debate." —John M. Ellis, 
University of California, Santa Cruz

Cloth 248 pages $12.50 November

LITERATURE 
AGAINST ITSELF

Literary Ideas in Modern Society
Gerald Graff

In this wide-ranging inquiry, which 
involves current educational and 
social criticism as well as literature 
and criticism, Graff looks into the 
reasons why humanistic thinkers 
have argued themselves into such 
self-defeating positions: why writers 
and critics have defined the humanis-
tic enterprise in ways that implicitly 
trivialize it.

Cloth 256 pages $14.00 
December

THE ORIGIN OF CERTAINTY
Means and Meanings in Pascal's Pensees

Hugh M. Davidson
"This is an important and distinguished piece of 
work; it may very well be for years to come the 
authoritative analysis of Pascal available in 
English." —Jules Brody, Queens College, CUNY

Cloth xii, 160 pages $12.00 January

ADVERBS, VOWELS, AND OTHER OBJECTS OF WONDER 
James 0. McCawley

"McCawley is a seminal, productive, important thinker in the field, and this book of essays is as 
much to be welcomed as was his Grammar and Meaning."— John Robert Ross, M. I. T.

Cloth 320 pages $20.00 January

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Chicago 60637



Insisting that Emerson’s biography is profoundly literary and his litera-
ture inextricably biographical, Joel Porte offers both fresh readings of 
Emerson’s best work and a detailed account of how that work—from 
Nature to The Conduct of Life —grew directly from his life. $15.95

REPRESENTATIVE MAN 
Ralph Waldo Emerson in His Time 

Joel Porte
-- ——• ^1

This pioneering work not only explores the intellectual links between 
the novelist of decorous detachment and the philosopher of feverish ex-
tremes but also illuminates a moment in cultural history which produced 
a radical new view of the relationship between life and art. $15.95

NIETZSCHE, HENRY JAMES,
AND THE ARTISTIC WILL

Stephen Donadio

By adhering closely to the text—but not to traditional readings of it— 
these lively, argumentative readings of Hamlet, Macbeth, Anthony and 
Cleopatra, and Coriolanus seek to liberate the Bard from hidebound 
criticism, approaching characters as people rather than literary con-
structs. $11.95

SHAKESPEARE’S MAGNANIMITY 
Four Tragic Heroes, Their Friends, and Families 

Wilbur Sanders and Howard Jacobson

Blending memories and documents, Christopher Fry traces the intricate 
pattern of events that shaped his family history and his own formative 
years. Letters, diaries, and photographs enhance this intimate memoir 
of some remarkable people, not least the playwright himself. $13.95

CAN YOU FIND ME 
A Family History 

Christopher Fry

OXFORD 
UNIVERSITY PRESS

200 Madison Avenue 
New York, N.Y. 10016

"l478~
1978

Publishers of Fine Books 
for Five Centuries