Maps and Legends

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Maps and Legends
First edition cover
Author	Michael Chabon
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Essay collection
Publisher	McSweeney's
Publication date	May 1, 2008
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	222 pp
ISBN	ISBN 1932416897

Maps and Legends is an essay collection by American author Michael Chabon that was scheduled for official release on May 1, 2008, although some copies shipped two weeks early from various online bookstores. The book will be Chabon's first book-length foray into nonfiction, and will comprise 16 essays, some previously published.^[1] Several of these essays are defenses of the author's work in genre literature (such as science fiction, fantasy, and comics), while others are more autobiographical, explaining how the author came to write several of his most popular works.

[edit] Criticism

Upon initial release, the book received some harsh criticism, most notably from Publishers Weekly.^[2]

[edit] Contents

"Trickster in a Suit of Lights: Thoughts on the Modern Short Story", elements of which originally appeared in McSweeney's and Best American Short Stories 2005.
"Maps and Legends" (about Columbia, Maryland), originally published in Architectural Digest in April 2001.
"Fan Fictions: On Sherlock Holmes", originally appeared as "Inventing Sherlock Holmes" and "The Game's Afoot", published in The New York Review of Books on February 10, 2005 and February 24, 2005.
"Ragnarok Boy", originally appeared, in a different form, in The New York Review of Books.
"On Daemons & Dust", originally appeared, in a different form, in The New York Review of Books.
"Kids' Stuff", a revised version of the keynote speech from the 2004 Eisner Awards Ceremony.
"The Killer Hook: On Howard Chaykin's American Flagg!", is previously unpublished.
"Dark Adventure: On Cormac McCarthy's The Road", originally appeared as "After the Apocalypse", published in The New York Review of Books on February 15, 2007.
"The Other James", a revised version of the introduction to Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories.
"Landsman of the Lost", originally appeared as the introduction to Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer.
"Thoughts on the Death of Will Eisner", originally appeared as the introduction to Will Eisner: A Spirited Life.
"My Back Pages", originally appeared, in a different form, in The New York Review of Books.
"Diving into the Wreck", originally appeared in Swing.
"The Recipe for Life" (about golems), originally published in The Washington Post Book World in 2000.
"Imaginary Homelands" (about the Yiddish language), elements of which originally appeared as "Guidebook to a Land of Ghosts", originally published in Civilization, June/July 1997, and reprinted as "The Language of Lost History" in Harper's Magazine in October 1997.
"Golems I Have Known, or, Why my Elder Son's Middle Name is Napoleon", is previously unpublished.