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Habitations of the Word: Essays
Brings together the author's reflections on literature, philosophy and the theory of language in pieces that examine a diversity of ideas and writers, including Emerson, Joyce, Dickens, and Pound
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
6 people are currently reading
386 people want to read
About the author
William H. Gass
64 books725 followersWilliam Howard Gass was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and former philosophy professor.
Gass was born in Fargo, North Dakota. Soon after his birth, his family moved to Warren, Ohio, where he attended local schools. He has described his childhood as an unhappy one, with an abusive, racist father and a passive, alcoholic mother; critics would later cite his characters as having these same qualities.
He attended Wesleyan University, then served as an Ensign in the Navy during World War II, a period he describes as perhaps the worst of his life. He earned his A.B. in philosophy from Kenyon College in 1947, then his Ph.D. in philosophy from Cornell University in 1954, where he studied under Max Black. His dissertation, "A Philosophical Investigation of Metaphor", was based on his training as a philosopher of language. In graduate school Gass read the work of Gertrude Stein, who influenced his writing experiments.
Gass taught at The College of Wooster, Purdue University, and Washington University in St. Louis, where he was a professor of philosophy (1969 - 1978) and the David May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities (1979 - 1999). His colleagues there have included the writers Stanley Elkin, Howard Nemerov (1988 Poet Laureate of the United States), and Mona Van Duyn (1992 Poet Laureate). Since 2000, Gass has been the David May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities.
Earning a living for himself and his family from university teaching, Gass began to publish stories that were selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of 1959, 1961, 1962, 1968 and 1980, as well as Two Hundred Years of Great American Short Stories. His first novel, Omensetter's Luck, about life in a small town in Ohio in the 1890s, was published in 1966. Critics praised his linguistic virtuosity, establishing him as an important writer of fiction. In 1968 he published In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, five stories dramatizing the theme of human isolation and the difficulty of love. Three years later Gass wrote Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife, an experimental novella illustrated with photographs and typographical constructs intended to help readers free themselves from the linear conventions of narrative. He has also published several collections of essays, including On Being Blue (1976) and Finding a Form (1996). His latest work of fiction, Cartesian Sonata and Other Novellas, was published in 1998. His work has also appeared in The Best American Essays collections of 1986, 1992, and 2000.
Gass has cited the anger he felt during his childhood as a major influence on his work, even stating that he writes "to get even." Despite his prolific output, he has said that writing is difficult for him. In fact, his epic novel The Tunnel, published in 1995, took Gass 26 years to compose. An unabridged audio version of The Tunnel was released in 2006, with Gass reading the novel himself.
When writing, Gass typically devotes enormous attention to the construction of sentences, arguing their importance as the basis of his work. His prose has been described as flashy, difficult, edgy, masterful, inventive, and musical. Steven Moore, writing in The Washington Post has called Gass "the finest prose stylist in America." Much of Gass' work is metafictional.
Gass has received many awards and honors, including grants from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1965, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1970. He won the Pushcart Prize awards in 1976, 1983, 1987, and 1992, and in 1994 he received the Mark Twain Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literature of the Midwest. He has teaching awards from Purdue University and Washington University; in 1968 the Chicago Tribune Award as One of the Ten Best Teachers in the Big Ten. He was a Getty Foundation Fellow in 1991-1992. He received the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997; and the American Book Award for The
Gass was born in Fargo, North Dakota. Soon after his birth, his family moved to Warren, Ohio, where he attended local schools. He has described his childhood as an unhappy one, with an abusive, racist father and a passive, alcoholic mother; critics would later cite his characters as having these same qualities.
He attended Wesleyan University, then served as an Ensign in the Navy during World War II, a period he describes as perhaps the worst of his life. He earned his A.B. in philosophy from Kenyon College in 1947, then his Ph.D. in philosophy from Cornell University in 1954, where he studied under Max Black. His dissertation, "A Philosophical Investigation of Metaphor", was based on his training as a philosopher of language. In graduate school Gass read the work of Gertrude Stein, who influenced his writing experiments.
Gass taught at The College of Wooster, Purdue University, and Washington University in St. Louis, where he was a professor of philosophy (1969 - 1978) and the David May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities (1979 - 1999). His colleagues there have included the writers Stanley Elkin, Howard Nemerov (1988 Poet Laureate of the United States), and Mona Van Duyn (1992 Poet Laureate). Since 2000, Gass has been the David May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities.
Earning a living for himself and his family from university teaching, Gass began to publish stories that were selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of 1959, 1961, 1962, 1968 and 1980, as well as Two Hundred Years of Great American Short Stories. His first novel, Omensetter's Luck, about life in a small town in Ohio in the 1890s, was published in 1966. Critics praised his linguistic virtuosity, establishing him as an important writer of fiction. In 1968 he published In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, five stories dramatizing the theme of human isolation and the difficulty of love. Three years later Gass wrote Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife, an experimental novella illustrated with photographs and typographical constructs intended to help readers free themselves from the linear conventions of narrative. He has also published several collections of essays, including On Being Blue (1976) and Finding a Form (1996). His latest work of fiction, Cartesian Sonata and Other Novellas, was published in 1998. His work has also appeared in The Best American Essays collections of 1986, 1992, and 2000.
Gass has cited the anger he felt during his childhood as a major influence on his work, even stating that he writes "to get even." Despite his prolific output, he has said that writing is difficult for him. In fact, his epic novel The Tunnel, published in 1995, took Gass 26 years to compose. An unabridged audio version of The Tunnel was released in 2006, with Gass reading the novel himself.
When writing, Gass typically devotes enormous attention to the construction of sentences, arguing their importance as the basis of his work. His prose has been described as flashy, difficult, edgy, masterful, inventive, and musical. Steven Moore, writing in The Washington Post has called Gass "the finest prose stylist in America." Much of Gass' work is metafictional.
Gass has received many awards and honors, including grants from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1965, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1970. He won the Pushcart Prize awards in 1976, 1983, 1987, and 1992, and in 1994 he received the Mark Twain Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literature of the Midwest. He has teaching awards from Purdue University and Washington University; in 1968 the Chicago Tribune Award as One of the Ten Best Teachers in the Big Ten. He was a Getty Foundation Fellow in 1991-1992. He received the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997; and the American Book Award for The
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 8, 2015
The final selection of Gass’s essays I had left to complete was as riveting and astronomic as its priors, including his sceptical take on ‘The Death of the Author’, the huge mental peregrination ‘Emerson and the Essay’, a fascinating take on a familiar postmodern problem in ‘Representation and the War for Reality’, his usual deep readings and philosophical exegeses of texts (inc. Stein and James) ‘The Soul Inside the Sentence’ and ‘Tropes of the Text’, his fantastic piece on the list form and the word ‘And’, alongside some denser and frightening material such as the intimidating title piece on Plato, or ‘Culture, Self, and Style’, all written in Gass’s beautifully musical, hyper-alliterative style. Two essays ‘On Talking to Oneself’ and ‘On Reading to Oneself’ are magnificent investigations into both acts (the latter the most interesting for its pertinence to us all), and there’s an essay on Ford Madox Ford, for those fond of that sort of thing. Smashing as usual. Completionism almost achieved: Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation the final milestone (this may never happen).
June 18, 2013
Magnificent book of essays on writing and thought, among many other things. Back in May of 2010, Big Other asked me to write a sentence about a sentence, and I chose one from the essay “Culture, Self and Style,” and here it is .
First the Gass sentence:
A sentence is a length of awareness.
Then mine:
The best word in this sentence is “length” but not for the reason you're thinking of, not for that reason at all and jesus god I can't believe I even hang out with you, how that's all you can ever think about, it's disgusting, frankly, it's fucking filthy, but back to the Gass, because he could have said lots of other things, could have said “segment” or “unit” (and you again with that look on your face) or “measure” or “span” or “clot” but no he said “length” and the sentence thus does what it says, thus walks its talk, thus performs its meaning, a beautiful and difficult thing in this or any world, performs its meaning more than once, in fact, since “awareness” can play a couple of ways, the author's or the reader's, and maybe in some sense the sentence's own, and maybe also in some episense all three at once forming a fourth, the smartest of the lot, the one we have all needed longest.
First the Gass sentence:
A sentence is a length of awareness.
Then mine:
The best word in this sentence is “length” but not for the reason you're thinking of, not for that reason at all and jesus god I can't believe I even hang out with you, how that's all you can ever think about, it's disgusting, frankly, it's fucking filthy, but back to the Gass, because he could have said lots of other things, could have said “segment” or “unit” (and you again with that look on your face) or “measure” or “span” or “clot” but no he said “length” and the sentence thus does what it says, thus walks its talk, thus performs its meaning, a beautiful and difficult thing in this or any world, performs its meaning more than once, in fact, since “awareness” can play a couple of ways, the author's or the reader's, and maybe in some sense the sentence's own, and maybe also in some episense all three at once forming a fourth, the smartest of the lot, the one we have all needed longest.
June 21, 2023
This book reminds me of one of those runs that is pure torture -- I'm feeling weak that day, or depressed, or unmotivated, or it's cold and rainy and windy -- but I just keep moving forward one plodding step at a time, all the while feeling this perverse satisfaction that I'm persevering despite the fact that I'd just as soon stop, turn, and walk back home.
It's thick, in language and pages; I imagine probably 20,000 metaphors in this book. You don't peek at the number of the final page, and you don't punish yourself by keeping tabs on your progress toward the finish. The experience is sometimes like watching a David Lynch film: you just absorb and appreciate the experience, without actually understanding it.
Of the parts that are less encumbered by the Gass' heavy, genius language, there are beautiful insights and epiphanies to be discovered. These sparkling moments make the trail of tears worthwhile.
It's thick, in language and pages; I imagine probably 20,000 metaphors in this book. You don't peek at the number of the final page, and you don't punish yourself by keeping tabs on your progress toward the finish. The experience is sometimes like watching a David Lynch film: you just absorb and appreciate the experience, without actually understanding it.
Of the parts that are less encumbered by the Gass' heavy, genius language, there are beautiful insights and epiphanies to be discovered. These sparkling moments make the trail of tears worthwhile.
February 8, 2026
DNF midway through the first essay. Fair but inconsistent prose, a somewhat difficult elevation in voice, and a lack of substance combined to make this a very fast DNF.
February 2, 2008
Haven't finished it. But I know it will be good just from what I've read so far. Check out his essay on the word "and". I like his non-fiction better than his fiction. I'm having trouble getting through The Tunnel, just because the style is intense and it gets old after awhile. I heard that this same style, he uses in some short stories and I bet I would like those better.
So someone insisted with raised voice and arms "YOU HAVE TO READ HIS NON-FICTION WORK!!" and so I stumbled onto this and they were exactly right. It's much more to my liking than the fiction (well, at least The Tunnel anyway---but I promise I'll finish it before I write it off completely, there's pages enough for him to save himself.)
So someone insisted with raised voice and arms "YOU HAVE TO READ HIS NON-FICTION WORK!!" and so I stumbled onto this and they were exactly right. It's much more to my liking than the fiction (well, at least The Tunnel anyway---but I promise I'll finish it before I write it off completely, there's pages enough for him to save himself.)
March 1, 2019
Sadness, not quite full bitterness but a memory of hard days, pervades this collection of essays. Gass is learned, deep, even oddly playful, but also on edge. He is not an insane James Wright of letters but he is not at the same time a joyful writer. I have net read him in years but he left a mark.
May 12, 2012
His essays are beautiful, and so are the author's love letters to language.
August 31, 2015
Better than even the best.
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August 3, 2011Beautiful essays about language by a man in love with language.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews