"Sullivan has found the transcendent in the horse."--Sports Illustrated

Winner of a 2004 Whiting Writers' Award

One evening late in his life, veteran sportswriter Mike Sullivan was asked by his son what he remembered best from his three decades in the press box. The answer came as a surprise. "I was at Secretariat's Derby, in '73. That was ... just beauty, you know?"

John Jeremiah Sullivan didn't know, not really-but he spent two years finding out, journeying from prehistoric caves to the Kentucky Derby in pursuit of what Edwin Muir called "our long-lost archaic...

"A creature from an alternative universe . . . wanting to understand what is on the American mind should rush to the nearest bookstore and buy a copy of this distinguished anthology . . . Exhilarating." -- Publishers Weekly

The Best American Essays 2014 is selected and introduced by John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of the critically acclaimed essay collection Pulphead. The New York Times placed Sullivan "among the best young nonfiction writers in English" and the New York Times Book Review heralded Pulphead as "the best, and most...