And now a few words on Robert Frank, The Single Image, and Looking In

Throughout my twenties and into my thirties I read biography, history, autobiography, and (late in the game) memoir. I read nonfiction, in other words—not poetry, not short stories, not novels—a habit gained throughout my years at Penn, where I had sidestepped writing and English courses in favor of my major, the history and sociology of science.

As many memoirs, novels, and poetry collections as I now read, I still love a solid history book, a critical study, a biography. There's all this a...