Maps and Legends is an essay collection by American author Michael Chabon
that was scheduled for official release on May 1, 2008, although some
copies shipped two weeks early from various online bookstores. The book is
Chabon's first book-length foray into nonfiction, with 16 essays, some
previously published.[1] Several of these essays are defenses of the
author's work in genre literature (such as science fiction, fantasy, and
comics), while others are more autobiographical, explaining how the author
came to write several of his most popular works.