Although Gass has been influenced by many poets, he has not written or published much verse himself (if you don't count the limericks and other poetry scattered throughout The Tunnel and Middle C). Gass fans may be surprised to find out his only published piece in The New Yorker was a poem, the proof of which is included here. In 1980, Webster Review published a poem by and photograph of Gass, also included below.

We also had to find a place for the letter to the editors of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Gass wrote in the guise of Samuel Clemens, in response to a bill in the Missouri legislature to rename the Mark Twain Expressway the Mark McGwire Expressway.

Gass has published his essays and reviews in numerous journals and periodicals, perhaps most notably and often in Harper’s Magazine (where he has also served as a contributing editor) and New York Review of Books. Local publications like the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis Journalism Review, St. Louis Magazine and Gateway Heritage have published his essays, and he has served as an ambassador for his home city in the pages of Travel Holiday, TWA Ambassador, and elsewhere. Besides writing about literature, culture and the arts, Gass has written and lectured extensively on architecture.

The items included on this page are limited to those currently unpublished or uncollected elsewhere. See the Nonfiction Books section for drafts of essays later collected in those books.