Includes "Skunk dreams" by Minnesota author Louise Erdrich. In a series praised every year for its eclectic character, The Best American Essays 1994 is one of the most eclectic ever. Guest editor Tracy Kidder has assembled an astonishing range of essay topics and types, featuring vibrant pieces by America ?s finest prose writers. Here are wonderfully original essays by Jamaica Kincaid, on tropical plants, and Stanley Elkin, on a bout with temporary insanity. Louise Erdrich recalls a night when she slept out alone on a North Dakota football field. David Denby writes of his encounter with a classic work of literature in the days before political correctness. There are essays on inner-city basketball, the aesthetic cult of violence, a Las Vegas orangutan act, the nuances of punctuation, and some of the scariest aspects of jet travel. Including work by Ian Frazier, Nicholas Baker, Vicki Hearne, and Adam Gopnik, among others, the volume expands the conventional definition of the essay to accommodate literary nonfiction, reportage, and articles that defy classification. The result is some of the most informative and interesting writing - and some of the most unusual assignments - undertaken today. - Dust jacket.