The essay is for exploring; the book, for explaining. Such was McLuhan's philosophy about these two forms. The essy is the freer form, better suited to exploration than the longer meditation, the book. This collection puts the reader in the place of colleague and co-researcher. Not just another compilation of articles and interviews, McLuhan Unbound contains off-prints of the original essays. See how the two McLuhans, the literary academic and the public media expert, are really one. Some of these articles were written before the subsequent book was envisioned: they are prliminary forays iinto new territory. Some were written after the book and encapsulate major themes; some set out additional discoveries or matters left out of the book; others present material discovered as a result of writing the book. The McLuhan Unbound offprints series is not the last word in presenting McLuhan's ideas and discoveries, but the first.