Places of the heart. Always something to do in Salinas -- The golden handcuff -- A primer on the '30s -- Making of a New Yorker -- My war with the ospreys -- Conversation at Sag Harbor. Engaged artist. Dubious battle in California -- The harvest gypsies : squatters' camps -- Starvation under the orange trees -- From Writers take sides -- I am a revolutionary -- Duel without pistols -- The trial of Arthur Miller -- Atque vale -- Dear Adlai -- G.O.P. delegates have bigger, better badges -- L'envoi. Occasional pieces. Then my arm glassed up -- On fishing -- Circus -- Random thoughts on random dogs -- --like captured fireflies -- The Joan in all of us -- A Model T named "it". On writing. The play-novelette -- My short novels -- Rationale -- Critics-from a writer's viewpoint -- Some random and randy thoughts on books -- Nobel prize acceptance speech. Friends. From About Ed Ricketts -- Ernie Pyle -- Tom Collins -- Robert Capa.

Adlai Stevenson -- Henry Fonda -- Woody Guthrie. Journalist abroad. Soul and guts of France -- One American in Paris (fourth piece) -- One American in Paris (thirteenth piece) -- Positano --Florence : the explosion of the chariot -- I go back to Ireland -- The ghost of Anthony Daly. War Correspondent. Troopship -- Waiting -- Stories of the Blitz -- Lilli Marlene -- Bob Hope -- Vietnam War : no front, no rear -- Action in the Delta -- Terrorism -- Puff, the magic dragon -- An open letter to poet Yevtushenko. America and Americans. Foreword -- E pluribus unum -- Paradox and dream -- Government of the people -- Created equal -- Genus Americanus -- The pursuit of happiness -- Americans and the land -- Americans and the world -- Americans and the future -- Afterword.