Empty Words - Writings '73-'78 Wesleyan University Press, 1979 - 187 p. - Hardcover, Illustrated in black and white First edition of this 1979 collection of essays, mesostics, and other procedurally generated writings by the avant-garde American composer. The title work is a text-score in which chance operations are used to systematically deconstruct the journals of Henry David Thoreau--a tactic born of Cage's interest in "demilitarizing" language by making it less understandable. X - Writings - '79-'82 Wesleyan paperback, 1986 - 187 p. - Softcover - Illustrated in black and white X: Writings ’79–’82 is a book by American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912–1992), first published in 1983. The book includes mesostics on the names of various people. In the forward to X, Cage writes that the volume's texts represent an attempt "to find a way of writing which comes from ideas, is not about them, but which produces them. John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, philosopher, poet, music theorist, artist, printmaker, and amateur mycologist and mushroom collector. A pioneer of chance music, electronic music and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.