In a time when the idea of literature has been dissolved by our academic critics into mere “discourse,” many readers seem unable to distinguish between art and ideology. “This book,” James Tuttleton writes, “is about the difference between the two and about the ways in which ideology has not merely entered the word of some of our best writers but even grossly disfigured it.” Mr. Tuttleton's new collection of fifteen essays focuses on what Henry James called “the imaginative faculty under cultivation,” the quality that makes for important literature. The subjects here range from Washington Irving to Louis Auchincloss, with stops along the way for considerations of Cooper, Poe, Howells, James, Henry Adams, Edith Wharton, Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and Conrad Aiken. The effects of ideology are a dominant motif, supported by Mr. Tuttleton's customary banquet of information based upon his close reading of American literature and criticism. Of his most recent collection, Vital Signs, James Seaton wrote in the Hudson Review: "The ability to integrate analysis with celebration requires both intellectual entergy and generosity of spirit; James Tuttleton is one of those rare critics who possesses both.... He is a critic whose judgements can be trusted." A Fine Silver Thread further confirms Mr. Tuttleton's stature as one of our most respected critics.