I had not been able to work in some months, had been paralyzed by the conviction that writing was an irrelevant act, that the world as I had understood it no longer existed. If I was to work again at all, it would be necessary for me to come to terms with disorder." Contents I. Life Styles in the Golden Land "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream"Appeared first in 1966 in The Saturday Evening Post under the title "How Can I Tell Them There's Nothing Left". "John Wayne: A Love Song"Appeared first in 1965 in The Saturday Evening Post. "Where the Kissing Never Stops"Appeared first in 1966 in The New York Times Magazine under the title "Just Folks at a School for Non-Violence". "Comrade Laski, C.P.U.S.A. (M.-L.)"Appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post. "7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38"Appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post under the title "The Howard Hughes Underground". "California Dreaming"Appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post. "Marrying Absurd"Appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post. "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"Appeared first on September 23, 1967, in The Saturday Evening Post. II. Personals "On Keeping a Notebook"Appeared first in 1966 in Holiday. "On Self-Respect"Appeared first in 1961 in Vogue under the title "Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power". "I Can't Get That Monster out of My Mind"Appeared first in 1964 in The American Scholar. "On Morality"Appeared first in 1965 in The American Scholar under the title "The Insidious Ethic of Conscience". "On Going Home"Appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post. III. Seven Places of the Mind "Notes from a Native Daughter"Appeared first in 1965 in Holiday. "Letter from Paradise, 21° 19' N., 157° 52' W"Appeared first in 1966 in The Saturday Evening Post under the title "Hawaii: Taps Over Pearl Harbor". "Rock of Ages"Appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post. "The Seacoast of Despair"Appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post. "Guaymas, Sonora"Appeared first in 1965 in Vogue. "Los Angeles Notebook"A section entitled "The Santa Ana" appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post. "Goodbye to All That"Appeared first in 1967 in The Saturday Evening Post under the title "Farewell to the Enchanted City". Reception The book was immediately favorably received; its popularity continued to grow and become a "phenomenon" with a devoted readership in subsequent years. In The New York Times Book Review, novelist and screenwriter Dan