Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 080

An eclectic gathering of twenty short nonfiction pieces from an earlier age of curious minds. The collection roams from H. L. Mencken's sharp thinking on individual autonomy versus mass intelligence to the practical mysteries of how a fast train operates, from Rupert Brooke's Mediterranean wanderings to close studies of farm wildflowers and a remarkably documented tame rook. There's Princess Zizianoff, the Hanseatic League, the history of the telephone, and a dog's life favorably compared to our own. The pieces vary in tone from scientific examination to personal observation to philosophical provocation. What holds them together is a certain vanished era of essay writing, when writers could assume an audience with attention spans and a appetite for the eclectic. This is browsing fare, the literary equivalent of poking around an old library or a well-stocked attic.