This volume collects four sharp philosophical essays by Ilan Stavans on the acquisition of knowledge in multi-ethnic environments, the role that dictionaries play in the preservation of memory, the function of libraries in the electronic age, and the uses of censorship. In the second part of the volume, Verónica Albin engages Stavans in a series of four conversations in which he expounds on the arguments he developed in the essays.

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professorof Latin American and Latino Culture, Amherst College. Verónica Albin is Senior Lecturer of Spanish, Rice University.