**From the National Book Award honored author of A Previous Life and a master of American literature comes a dazzling collection of 25 years of groundbreaking essays that redefined politics, language, identity, and friendship. “A testament to White’s versatility, his insatiable curiosity about the emergence of gays in modern American life…. Fascinating.” —San Francisco Chronicle** Along with his essays of gay experience and desire, this magisterial collection of White's nonfiction writings includes dazzling subversive appreciations of cultural icons as diverse as Truman Capote and Cormac McCarthy, Robert Mapplethorpe and the singer formerly known as Prince.