Robert Wexelblatt writes, in the preface to this book of his essays: "I write fiction when I am up to it, poetry when I can't help it, letters when I must, essays the rest of the time. The pieces collected in this book were composed because of a wish to share something, out of fullness of heart, for pleasure, for relief, sometimes for an audience. None was produced merely to hold on to my job as a professor. In a sense, Professors at Play has been...