David Bartholomae has been a prominent figure in the field of composition and rhetoric for almost five decades. Throughout his career, his focus has always been on teaching, writing, and the teaching of writing. These essays, written over the past dozen years, are arranged and unified by a thread that connects some of the books and ideas, people and places, students and courses that have shaped and sustained his work as a teacher of writing. The essays trace his formation as a teacher, writer, and scholar, and open doors to paths of study that speak directly to issues related to global understanding across linguistic and cultural divides. Taken together, the pieces in this collection reveal Bartholomae's ideas about writing studies and the ways in which student writing and the teaching of writing contribute to and are central to the mission of the university.