The Best American Series® First, Best, and Best-Selling The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind. The Best American Essays 2012 includes Marcia Angell, Miah Arnold, Mark Doty, Joseph Epstein, Jonathan Franzen, Malcolm Gladwell, Francine Prose, Lauren Slater, Sandra Tsing Loh, Jose Antonio Vargas, and others The Best American Series® First, Best, and Best-Selling The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind. The Best American Essays 2012 includes Marcia Angell, Miah Arnold, Mark Doty, Joseph Epstein, Jonathan Franzen, Malcolm Gladwell, Francine Prose, Lauren Slater, Sandra Tsing Loh, Jose Antonio Vargas, and others [INSERT AUTHOR PHOTO] DAVID BROOKS, editor, is a New York Times op-ed columnist and the author, most recently, of The Social Animal . He is also a commentator on the PBS NewsHour and a frequent analyst on NPR’s All Things Considered . Look for the other best-selling titles in the Best American series: THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES THE BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING THE BEST AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITING ROBERT ATWAN has been the series editor of The Best American Essays since its inception in 1986. He has edited numerous literary anthologies and written essays and reviews for periodicals nationwide. David Brooks, The Best American Essays, paperback