This is a book about airport stories. It is about common narratives of airports that circulate in everyday life and about the secret stories of airportsthe strange or hidden narratives that do not always fit into standard ideas of these inbetween places. Tales of near disaster endless delays dramatic weather shifts a lost bag that suddenly appearssuch stories are familiar accounts of a place that seems to thrive on and recycle its own mythologies. The Textual Life of Airports shows how airports demand to be read. Working at the intersection of literary studies and cultural theory Schaberg tracks airport stories in American literature as well as in a range of visual texts film airport art magazine illustrations. It accounts for how airports appear in literature throughout the twentiethcentury while also examining the influx of airport figures in markedly post911 literature and culture. These literary and cultural representations work together to form ampampquotthe textual life of airports.ampampquot