This volume brings together writings on major figures such as Brecht, Valery, and Gide, and on subjects ranging from film, radio, and the novel to memory, kitsch, and the theory of language. Also included are several of Benjamin's most entertaining radio scripts for a popular audience, as well as some rare and revealing glimpses into a fragmentary autobiography, in the form of diary entries, travel sketches, recollections, and personal meditations.

Table of Contents:
Moscow, 1927 Dream Kitsch The Political Groupings of Russian Writers On the Present Situation of Russian Film Reply to Oscar A. H. Schmitz Introductory Remarks on a Series for L'Humanite Moscow Review of Gladkov's Cement Journalism Gottfried Keller Diary of my Journey to the Loire Review of Soupault's le Coeur d'or The Idea of a Mystery Review of Hessel's Heimliches Berlin A State Monopoly on Pornography Image Imperatives, 1928 Curriculum Vitae (III) Andre Gide and Germany Main Features of My Second Impression of Hashish Conversation with Andre Gide Old Toys Hugo von Hofmannsthal's der Turm Moonlit Nights on the rue la Boetie Karl Kraus Reads Offenbach The Cultural History of Toys Toys and Play Everything is Thought Books by the Mentally Ill Review of the Mendelssohns' der Mensch in der Handschrift Food Fair Paris as Goddess The Path to Success, in Thirteen Theses Weimar The Fireside Saga News about Flowers Review of Green's Adrienne Mesurat Goethe Karl Kraus (Fragment) The Return of the Flaneur, 1929 Chaplin Program for a Proletarian Children's Theater Surrealism Chaplin in Retrospect Chambermaids' Romances of the Past Century Marseilles On the Image of Proust The Great Art of Making Things Seem Closer Together Milieu Theoreticians Children's Literature Robert Walser The Return of the Flaneur Short Shadows (I) A Communist Pedagogy Notes on a Conversation with Bela Balasz Some Remarks on Folk Art Tip for Patrons Crisis and Critique, 1930 Notes (II) Notes (III) Program for Literary Criticism Notes on a Theory of Gambling The Crisis of the Novel An Outsider Makes His Mark Theories of German Fascism Demonic Berlin Hashish, Beginning of March 1930 Julien Green Paris Diary Review of Kracauer's die Angestellten Food Bert Brecht The First Form of Criticism that Refuses to Judge From the Brecht Commentary Against a Masterpiece Myslovice--Braunschweig--Marseilles A Critique of the Publishing Industry Graphology Old and New Characterization of the New Generation The Need to Take the Mediating Character of Bourgeois Writing Seriously False Criticism Antitheses The Destructive Character, 1931 In Parallel with My Actual Diary Criticism as the Fundamental Discipline of Literary History Critique of the New Objectivity We Ought to Reexamine the Link between Teaching and Research Hofmannsthal and Aleco Dossena Left-Wing Melancholy Theological Criticism Karl Kraus Literary History and the Study of Literature German Letters May-June 1931 Unpacking My Library Franz Kafka: Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer Diary from August 7, 1931, to the Day of My Death Little History of Photography Paul Valery The Lisbon Earthquake The Destructive Character Reflections on Radio Mickey Mouse In Almost Every Example We Have of Materialist Literary History The Task of the Critic Ibizan Sequence, 1932 Experience On Ships, Mine Shafts, and Crucifixes in Bottles On the Trail of Old Letters A Family Drama in the Epic Theater The Railway Disaster at the Firth of Tay Privileged Thinking Excavation and Memory Oedipus, or Rational Myth On Proverbs Theater and Radio Ibizan Sequence A Berlin Chronicle Spain, 1932 Light from Obscurantists The Handkerchief In the Sun The Rigorous Study of Art Hashish in Marseilles The Eve of Departure On Astrology "Try to Ensure that Everything in Life Has a Consequence" Notes (IV) Thought Figures, 1933 The Lamp Doctrine of the Similar Short Shadows (II) Kierkegaard Stefan George in Retrospect Agesilaus Santander (First Version) Agesilaus Santander (Second Version) Antitheses Concerning Word and Name On the Mimetic Faculty Thought Figures Little Tricks of the Trade Experience and Poverty The Author's Producer, 1934 Once Is as Good as Never The Newspaper Venal but Unusable The Present Social Situation of the French Writer The Author as Producer Notes from Svendborg, Summer 1934 Hitler's Diminished Masculinity Franz Kafka A Note on the Texts Chronology, 1927-1934 Index