..". a first-rate edition, which supersedes all other portablePeirces.... all the Peirce most people will ever need." -- Louis Menand, TheNew York Review of Books "The Monist essays are included inthe first volume of the compact and welcome Essential Peirce; they are by Peirce'sstandards quite accessible and splendid in their cosmic scope andassertiveness." -- London Review of Books A convenienttwo-volume reader's edition makes accessible to students and scholars the mostimportant philosophical papers of the brilliant American thinker Charles SandersPeirce. This first volume presents twenty-five key texts from the first quartercentury of his writing, with a clear introduction and informative headnotes. Volume2 will highlight the development of Peirce's system of signs and his maturepragmatism.