THE 16 BRADFORD ESSAYS INCLUDED HERE range over a variety of Faulkner's literary productions, though the emphasis lies especially on the shorter fiction-both widely known and studied stories like "Barn Burning" and lesser-known texts like "Golden Land." Thematically, the essays reflect, of course, Bradford's own personal predilections, though there is no doubt that the recurring themes were also central to Faulkner's aims as a writer: the profound gravity of the past as it informs the present; the "peculiar" and tragic-even mythic- trajectory of Southern history; the powerful sense of place and attachment to the land; the importance not only of the old Southern hierarchies-especially the legacy of the antebellum planter class-but also of the yeomanry or "plain folk"; and the preeminent moral importance of endurance.