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The Most Anthologized Essays of the Last 25 Years
In which joan didion appears more than once.
Depending on who you are, the word “essay” may make you squirm. After all, here in America at least, our introduction to the essay often comes complete with five paragraphs and “repeat but rephrase” and other soul-killing rules. But in actuality, essays are nothing like the staid, formulaic, boring things they make you write in high school. They’re all over the place. They’re wild. Or at least they can be. After all, the word essay comes from the French verb essayer , which means “to try.” Essays are merely attempts, at expression, or at proof; they claim to be nothing more. I’ve always thought that was lovely.
For this list, I looked at 14 essay anthologies, plus the three volumes of Lee Gutkind’s The Best Creative Nonfiction and John D’Agata’s three-part survey of the form ( The Next American Essay, The Lost Origins of the Essay , and The Making of the American Essay ), for a total of 20 books published between 1991 and 2016. I ignored all themed anthologies, as well as any limited to a specific year or publication. This is the last survey of anthologies in a series—earlier this month, I looked at the most anthologized short stories and the most anthologized poems —and considering all three lists together affords the ability to compare the way the different forms are canonized and read in America.
Of the three, I was most surprised by the data here. The essay is perhaps the most ravenous of forms, but these anthologies included letters, speeches (notably, a fair number of presidential addresses), excerpts from longer, reported works of non-fiction, and a number of works that I consider stories (like Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl,” which most agree is a short story, and some argue is a poem, but is certainly not an essay) or even actual poetry (John D’Agata, I know you’re a rebel and all, but “ For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffrey ,” while incredible, is not an essay). On the other hand, several essays that I consider top-notch classics didn’t make the cut (like Jo Ann Beard’s “The Fourth State of Matter,” and Gay Talese’s “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which each appear only once in all the anthologies I surveyed). And Michel de Montaigne, who essentially coined the term, is only feebly represented. The better news is that five of the nine most anthologized essays are by writers of color, which is significantly better than either of the other lists do in that regard.
Below, I’ve separated my findings into four lists: the most anthologized essays (this should be self-explanatory), the most anthologized essayists (the authors with the most essays total across the anthologies), the most widely anthologized essayists (the authors with the most discrete essays across the anthologies), and the one hit wonders (those essays that were their authors only piece represented across the anthologies, albeit multiple times). At the end, there’s the full list, consisting of all duplicated essays and all essayists who had at least three pieces among the books I surveyed.
Most Anthologized Essays
Nine inclusions:
“Once More to the Lake,” E. B. White
Seven inclusions:
“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Six inclusions:
“How it Feels to be Colored Me,” Zora Neale Hurston “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan “The Death of the Moth,” Virginia Woolf
Five inclusions:
“Stranger in the Village,” James Baldwin “No Name Woman,” Maxine Hong Kingston “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell
Four inclusions:
“On Keeping a Notebook,” Joan Didion “The Search for Marvin Gardens,” John McPhee “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” N. Scott Momaday
Three inclusions:
“Graduation,” Maya Angelou “Notes of a Native Son,” James Baldwin “The Pain Scale,” Eula Biss “Seeing,” Annie Dillard “Learning to Read,” Frederick Douglass “Of the Coming of John,” W.E.B. Du Bois from Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America , Barbara Ehrenreich “On Dumpster Diving,” Lars Eighner “The Crack-up,” F. Scott Fitzgerald “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,” Stephen Jay Gould “Illumination Rounds,” Michael Herr “Salvation,” Langston Hughes “The Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson “The Undertaking,” Thomas Lynch “Aria: a Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood,” Richard Rodriguez “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau “Consider the Lobster,” David Foster Wallace “Yeager,” Tom Wolfe
Two inclusions:
from Two or Three Things I Know for Sure , Dorothy Allison “How To Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa “Graven Images,” Saul Bellow “Time and Distance Overcome,” Eula Biss “I Want a Wife,” Judy Brady “Why Don’t We Complain?,” William F. Buckley Jr. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicolas Carr “The Dream,” Winston Churchill “Remarks to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Plenary Session,” Hillary Rodham Clinton “Silent Dancing,” Judith Ortiz Cofer “Music Is My Bag: Confessions of a Lapsed Oboist,” Meghan Daum “The White Album,” Joan Didion “On Going Home,” Joan Didion “On Morality,” Joan Didion “Total eclipse,” Annie Dillard “Living Like Weasels,” Annie Dillard from An American Childhood , Annie Dillard “Somehow Form a Family,” Tony Earley “Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant,” Gerald Early “The Solace of Open Spaces,” Gretel Ehrlich “Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson “Young Hunger,” M.F.K. Fisher “When Doctors Make Mistakes,” Atul Gawande “He and I,” Natalia Ginzburg “Mirrorings,” Lucy Grealy “The Lost Childhood,” Graham Greene “Apotheosis of Martin Luther King,” Elizabeth Hardwick “On the Pleasure of Hating,” William Hazlitt “The Courage of Turtles,” Edward Hoagland “A Small Place,” Jamaica Kincaid “Dream Children: a Reverie,” Charles Lamb “Coming Home Again,” Chang-Rae Lee “On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs “Of Some Verses on Virgil,” Michel de Montaigne “Two Ways to Belong in America,” Bharati Mukherjee “Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney,” Barack Obama “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato “Oranges and Sweet Sister Boy,” Judy Ruiz “Under the Influence,” Scott Russell Sanders “The Men We Carry in our Minds,” Scott Russell Sanders “Letter to President Pierce, 1855,” Chief Seattle “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective,” Leslie Marmon Silko “What Should a Billionaire Give—and What Should You?,” Peter Singer “A Century of Cinema,” Susan Sontag “Regarding the Pain of Others,” Susan Sontag “Decolonizing the Mind,” Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o “Walking,” Henry David Thoreau “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Henry David Thoreau “Ain’t I a Woman?,” Sojourner Truth “Advice to Youth,” Mark Twain “In Search of our Mothers’ Gardens,” Alice Walker “Writing and Analyzing a Story,” Eudora Welty “The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” Terry Tempest Williams “A Preface to Persius,” Edmund Wilson “In Search of a Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf
The Most Anthologized Essayists ( the authors with most essays published among the anthologies )
Sixteen essays: Joan Didion
Fourteen essays: Annie Dillard
Thirteen essays: Virginia Woolf
Eleven essays: James Baldwin George Orwell E. B. White
Nine essays: Richard Rodriguez Henry David Thoreau
Eight essays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Susan Sontag Jonathan Swift
Seven essays: Samuel Johnson Michel de Montaigne Mark Twain Eudora Welty
Six essays: Francis Bacon Barbara Ehrenreich Stephen Jay Gould Maxine Hong Kingston Zora Neale Hurston Charles Lamb John McPhee David Sedaris Amy Tan
Five essays: Maya Angelou Eula Biss M.F.K. Fisher Atul Gawande William Hazlitt Jamaica Kincaid Nancy Mairs H.L. Mencken N. Scott Momaday Adrienne Rich Lewis Thomas Alice Walker David Foster Wallace Tom Wolfe
The Most Widely Anthologized Essayists ( authors with most discrete essays published among the anthologies )
Ten essays:
Joan Didion
Nine essays:
Annie Dillard
Seven essays:
Samuel Johnson Richard Rodriguez Virginia Woolf
Six essays:
Sir Francis Bacon Michel de Montaigne George Orwell David Sedaris Seneca Susan Sontag Mark Twain Eudora Welty
Five essays:
James Baldwin Charles Lamb H.L. Mencken Adrienne Rich Lewis Thomas Henry David Thoreau
Four essays:
Max Beerbohm G.K. Chesterton Barbara Ehrenreich M.F.K. Fisher Atul Gawande Stephen Jay Gould William Hazlitt Jamaica Kincaid Phillip Lopate Barry Lopez Nancy Mairs Cynthia Ozick Anna Quindlen Scott Russell Sanders Robert Louis Stevenson James Thurber Alice Walker
One Hit Wonders ( authors with a only single essay represented across the anthologies )
“How it Feels to be Colored Me,” Zora Neale Hurston “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan
“On Dumpster Diving,” Lars Eighner “Illumination Rounds,” Michael Herr “The Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson “The Undertaking,” Thomas Lynch
from Two or Three Things I Know for Sure , Dorothy Allison “How To Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa “Graven Images,” Saul Bellow “I Want a Wife,” Judy Brady “Why Don’t We Complain?,” William F. Buckley Jr. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicolas Carr “Remarks to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Plenary Session,” Hillary Rodham Clinton “Music Is My Bag: Confessions of a Lapsed Oboist,” Meghan Daum “Somehow Form a Family,” Tony Earley “Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson “He and I,” Natalia Ginzburg “Mirrorings,” Lucy Grealy “The Lost Childhood,” Graham Greene “Apotheosis of Martin Luther King,” Elizabeth Hardwick “Coming Home Again,” Chang-Rae Lee “Two Ways to Belong in America,” Bharati Mukherjee “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato “Oranges and Sweet Sister Boy,” Judy Ruiz “Letter to President Pierce, 1855,” Chief Seattle “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective,” Leslie Marmon Silko “Decolonizing the Mind,” Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o “Ain’t I a Woman?,” Sojourner Truth “The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” Terry Tempest Williams
The Full List ( all essays by writers with at least one duplication or three disparate essays anthologized )
“The Great American Desert,” Edward Abbey “The Cowboy and his Cow,” Edward Abbey “Havasu,” Edward Abbey
“Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie “Indian Education,” Sherman Alexie “Captivity,” Sherman Alexie
from Two or Three Things I Know for Sure , Dorothy Allison (x 2)
“Graduation,” Maya Angelou (x 3) “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou “Champion of the World,” Maya Angelou
“How To Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa (x 2)
“Of Truth,” Sir Francis Bacon “Of Revenge,” Sir Francis Bacon “Of Boldness,” Sir Francis Bacon “Of Innovations,” Sir Francis Bacon “Of Masques and Triumphs,” Sir Francis Bacon “Antithesis of Things,” Sir Francis Bacon
“Stranger in the Village,” James Baldwin (x 5) “Notes of a Native Son,” James Baldwin (x 3) “Alas, Poor Richard,” James Baldwin “The Fight: Patterson vs. Liston,” James Baldwin “Equal in Paris,” James Baldwin
“Going Out for a Walk,” Max Beerbohm “Laughter,” Max Beerbohm “Something Defeasible,” Max Beerbohm “A Clergyman,” Max Beerbohm
“Graven Images,” Saul Bellow (x 2)
“What Reconciles Me,” John Berger “Photographs of Agony,” John Berger “Turner and the Barber’s Shop,” John Berger
“The Pain Scale,” Eula Biss (x 3) “Time and Distance Overcome,” Eula Biss (x 2)
“Blindness,” Jorge Luis Borges “Borges and I,” Jorge Luis Borges “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Teritus,” Jorge Luis Borges
“I Want a Wife,” Judy Brady (x 2)
“Why Don’t We Complain?,” William F. Buckley Jr. (x 2)
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicholas Carr (x 2)
“The Glass Essay,” Anne Carson from Short Talks , Anne Carson “Kinds of Water,” Anne Carson
“Marginal world,” Rachel Carson “The Obligation to Endure,” Rachel Carson “A Fable for Tomorrow,” Rachel Carson
“A Piece of Chalk,” G.K. Chesterton “On Running After One’s Hat,” G.K. Chesterton “A Defense of Penny Dreadfuls,” G.K. Chesterton “On Sandals and Simplicity,” G.K. Chesterton
“The Dream,” Winston Churchill (x 2) from “We Shall Fight on the Beaches,” Winston Churchill from “This Was Their Finest Hour,” Winston Churchill
“Silent Dancing,” Judith Ortiz Cofer (x 2) “More Room,” Judith Ortiz Cofer “Myth of the Latin Woman: I just met a girl named Maria,” Judith Ortiz Cofer
“Another Country,” Edwidge Danticat “Uncle Moïse,” Edwidge Danticat “Westbury Court,” Edwidge Danticat
“Music Is My Bag: Confessions of a Lapsed Oboist,” Meghan Daum (x 2)
“On Keeping a Notebook,” Joan Didion (x 4) “The White Album,” Joan Didion (x 2) “On Going Home,” Joan Didion (x 2) “On Morality,” Joan Didion (x 2) “Goodbye to All That,” Joan Didion “In Bed,” Joan Didion “At the Dam,” Joan Didion “Georgia O’Keeffe,” Joan Didion from Salvador , Joan Didion “The Santa Ana,” Joan Didion
“Seeing,” Annie Dillard (x 3) “Total Eclipse,” Annie Dillard (x 2) “Living Like Weasels,” Annie Dillard (x 2) rom An American Childhood , Annie Dillard (x 2) “Sight into Insight,” Annie Dillard “On Foot in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley,” Annie Dillard from For the Time Being , Annie Dillard “The Chase,” Annie Dillard “The Stunt Pilot,” Annie Dillard
“Learning to Read,” Frederick Douglass (x 3) from “Fourth of July Oration,” Frederick Douglass
“Of the Coming of John,” W.E.B. Du Bois (x 3) “A Mild Suggestion,” W.E.B. Du Bois
“Somehow Form a Family,” Tony Earley (x 2)
“Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant,” Gerald Early (x 2) “Digressions,” Gerald Early
from Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America , Barbara Ehrenreich (x 3) “Serving in Florida,” Barbara Ehrenreich “Cultural Baggage,” Barbara Ehrenreich “War Without Humans: Modern Blood Rites Revisited,” Barbara Ehrenreich
“The Solace of Open Spaces,” Gretel Ehrlich (x 2) from the Journals, Gretel Ehrlich “Lijiang,” Gretel Ehrlich
“On Dumpster Diving,” Lars Eighner (x 3)
“Brown Wasps,” Loren Eiseley “The Angry Winter,” Loren Eiseley “The Snout,” Loren Eiseley
“Tradition and the Individual Talent,” T.S. Eliot “Marie Lloyd,” T.S. Eliot “The Dry Salvages,” T.S. Eliot
“The American Scholar,” Ralph Waldo Emerson “The Conservative,” Ralph Waldo Emerson “Nature,” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson (x 2)
“Young Hunger,” M.F.K. Fisher (x 2) “Once a Tramp, Always,” M.F.K. Fisher “The Flaw,” M.F.K. Fisher “Paris Journal,” M.F.K. Fisher
“The Crack-up,” F. Scott Fitzgerald (x 3) “Sleeping and Waking,” F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Learning to Write,” Benjamin Franklin from the Autobiography , Benjamin Franklin “The Levee,” Benjamin Franklin
“When Doctors Make Mistakes,” Atul Gawande (x 2) from “Overkill,” Atul Gawande “Final Cut,” Atul Gawande “Why Boston’s Hospitals Were Ready,” Atul Gawande
“He and I,” Natalia Ginzburg (x 2)
“Java Man,” Malcolm Gladwell “None of the Above: What I.Q. Doesn’t Tell You about Race,” Malcolm Gladwell “The Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell
“Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,” Stephen Jay Gould (x 3) “Creation Myths of Cooperstown,” Stephen Jay Gould “A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse,” Stephen Jay Gould “The Median Isn’t the Message,” Stephen Jay Gould
“Mirrorings,” Lucy Grealy (x 2)
“The Lost Childhood,” Graham Greene (x 2)
“Apotheosis of Martin Luther King,” Elizabeth Hardwick (x 2)
“No Name Woman,” Maxine Hong Kingston (x 5) “Tongue-Tied,” Maxine Hong Kingston
“On the Pleasure of Hating,” William Hazlitt (x 2) “On Going a Journey,” William Hazlitt “The Fight,” William Hazlitt “Brummelliana,” William Hazlitt
“Illumination Rounds,” Michael Herr (x 3)
“The Courage of Turtles,” Edward Hoagland (x 2) “The Threshold and the Jolt of Pain,” Edward Hoagland “Heaven and Nature,” Edward Hoagland
“Salvation,” Langston Hughes (x 3) “Bop,” Langston Hughes
“How it Feels to Be Colored Me,” Zora Neale Hurston (x 6)
“The Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson (x 3)
“The Boarding house,” Samuel Johnson “The Solitude of the Country,” Samuel Johnson “Dignity and Uses of Biography,” Samuel Johnson “Conversation,” Samuel Johnson “Debtors’ Prisons (1),” Samuel Johnson “Debtors’ Prisons (2),” Samuel Johnson “To Reign Once More in Our Native Country,” Samuel Johnson
“A Small Place,” Jamaica Kincaid (x 2) “On Seeing England for the First Time,” Jamaica Kincaid “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid “Biography of a Dress,” Jamaica Kincaid
“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. (x 7) “I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Dream Children: a Reverie,” Charles Lamb (x 2) “New Year’s Eve,” Charles Lamb “A Chapter on Ears,” Charles Lamb “The Superannuated Man,” Charles Lamb from “On Some of the Old Actors,” Charles Lamb
“Coming Home Again,” Chang-Rae Lee (x 2)
“Second Inaugural Address,” Abraham Lincoln (x 3) “First Inaugural Address,” Abraham Lincoln “The Gettysburg Address,” Abraham Lincoln
“Against Joie de Vivre,” Phillip Lopate “Portrait of my Body,” Phillip Lopate “On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character,” Phillip Lopate “The Dead Father: A Rememberance of Donald Barthelme,” Phillip Lopate
“Flight,” Barry Lopez “Grown Men,” Barry Lopez “The Raven,” Barry Lopez “Landscape and Narrative,” Barry Lopez
“The Fourth of July,” Audre Lorde “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” Audre Lorde “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” Audre Lorde
“The Undertaking,” Thomas Lynch (x 3)
“On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs (x 2) “Ron her Son,” Nancy Mairs “Body in Trouble,” Nancy Mairs “Disability,” Nancy Mairs
“My Confession,” Mary McCarthy “Artists in Uniform,” Mary McCarthy “Yonder Peasant, Who Is He?,” Mary McCarthy
“The Case for Single-Child Families,” Bill McKibben “Waste Not, Want Not,” Bill McKibben “Curbing Nature’s Paparazzi,” Bill McKibben
“The Search for Marvin Gardens,” John McPhee (x 4) “Under the Snow,” John McPhee from Annals of the Former World , John McPhee
“On Being an American,” H.L. Mencken “Hills of Zion,” H.L. Mencken “Reflections on Journalism,” H.L. Mencken “The Libido for the Ugly,” H.L. Mencken “Funeral march,” H.L. Mencken
“The Way to Rainy Mountain,” N. Scott Momaday (x 4) “An American Land Ethic,” N. Scott Momaday
“Of some verses on Virgil,” Michel de Montaigne (x 2) “Of books,” Michel de Montaigne “Of a monstrous child,” Michel de Montaigne from “On Cannibals,” Michel de Montaigne “Of Democritus and Heraclitus,” Michel de Montaigne “Of Experience,” Michel de Montaigne
“Two Ways to Belong in America,” Bharati Mukherjee (x 2)
“This is Not Who We Are,” Naomi Shihab Nye “Thank You in Arabic,” Naomi Shihab Nye “One Village,” Naomi Shihab Nye
“Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney,” Barack Obama (x 2) “A More Perfect Union,” Barack Obama
“Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell (x 5) “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell (x 2) “Such, Such were the Joys,” George Orwell “Reflections on Gandhi,” George Orwell “The Moon under Water,” George Orwell “A Hanging,” George Orwell
“Drugstore in Winter,” Cynthia Ozick “The Lesson of the Master,” Cynthia Ozick “Highbrow Blues,” Cynthia Ozick “Portrait of the Essay as a Warm Body,” Cynthia Ozick
“The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato (x 2)
“An Animal’s Place,” Michael Pollan “Why “Natural” Doesn’t Mean Anything Anymore,” Michael Pollan “What’s Eating America,” Michael Pollan
“Future is Now,” Katherine Anne Porter “St. Augustine and the Bullfight,” Katherine Anne Porter “The Necessary Enemy,” Katherine Anne Porter
“Between the Sexes, a Great Divide,” Anna Quindlen “Stuff Is Not Salvation,” Anna Quindlen “The War We Haven’t Won,” Anna Quindlen “Homeless,” Anna Quindlen
“Split at the Root,” Adrienne Rich “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying,” Adrienne Rich “Taking Women Students Seriously,” Adrienne Rich “Claiming an Education,” Adrienne Rich from “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Adrienne Rich
“Aria: a Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood,” Richard Rodriguez (x 3) “Late Victorians,” Richard Rodriguez “Going Home Again,” Richard Rodriguez from Crossing Borders , Richard Rodriguez from Darling , Richard Rodriguez “Private Language, Public Language,” Richard Rodriguez “‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans,” Richard Rodriguez
“Oranges and Sweet Sister Boy,” Judy Ruiz (x 2)
“Under the Influence,” Scott Russell Sanders (x 2 ) “The Men we Carry in our Minds,” Scott Russell Sanders (x 2) “The Singular First Person,” Scott Russell Sanders “The Inheritance of Tools,” Scott Russell Sanders
“Letter to President Pierce, 1855,” Chief Seattle (x 2)
“Repeat After Me,” David Sedaris “Loggerheads,” David Sedaris “A Plague of Tics,” David Sedaris “Guy Walks into a Bar Car,” David Sedaris “The Drama Bug,” David Sedaris “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa,” David Sedaris
“On Noise,” Seneca “Asthma,” Seneca “Scipio’s Villa,” Seneca “Slaves,” Seneca “Epistle 47,” Seneca “Sick,” Seneca
“Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective,” Leslie Marmon Silko (x 2)
“What Should a Billionaire Give—and What Should You?,” Peter Singer (x 2) from Animal Liberation , Peter Singer
“A Century of Cinema,” Susan Sontag (x 2) “Regarding the Pain of Others,” Susan Sontag (x 2) “Notes on ‘Camp,'” Susan Sontag from “Freak Show,” Susan Sontag “Unguided Tour,” Susan Sontag from “AIDS and Its Metaphors,” Susan Sontag.
“Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton (x 3) “Seneca Falls Keynote Address,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton
“Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples (x 3) “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” Brent Staples
“Aes Triplex,” Robert Louis Stevenson “The Lantern-bearers,” Robert Louis Stevenson “An Apology for Idlers,” Robert Louis Stevenson “On Marriage,” Robert Louis Stevenson
“A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift (x 6) “Good Manners and Good Breeding,” Jonathan Swift “A Meditation upon a Broom-stick,” Jonathan Swift
“Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan (x 6)
“Decolonizing the Mind,” Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (x 2)
“Lives of a Cell,” Lewis Thomas “Notes on Punctuation,” Lewis Thomas “To Err is Human,” Lewis Thomas “Becoming a Doctor,” Lewis Thomas “The Medusa and the Snail,” Lewis Thomas
“Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau (x 3) “Walking,” Henry David Thoreau (x 2) “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Henry David Thoreau (x 2) “The Battle of the Ants,” Henry David Thoreau “Night and Moonlight,” Henry David Thoreau
“The Secret Life of James Thurber,” James Thurber “Sex Ex Machina,” James Thurber “My Own Ten Rules for a Happy Marriage,” James Thurber “Snapshot of a Dog,” James Thurber
“Ain’t I a Woman?,” Sojourner Truth (x 2)
“Advice to Youth,” Mark Twain (x 2) “Corn-pone Opinions,” Mark Twain “Italian without a master,” Mark Twain “Thoughts of God,” Mark Twain from Life on the Mississippi “Letters from the Earth,” Mark Twain
“In Search of our Mothers’ Gardens,” Alice Walker (x 2) “Looking for Zora,” Alice Walker “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self,” Alice Walker “Becoming What We’re Called,” Alice Walker
“Consider the Lobster,” David Foster Wallace (x 3) “Ticket to the Fair,” David Foster Wallace “Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise,” David Foster Wallace
“Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White (x 9) “The Ring of Time,” E.B. White “About Myself,” E.B. White
“Writing and Analyzing a Story,” Eudora Welty (x 2) “Sweet Devouring,” Eudora Welty “Clamorous to Learn,” Eudora Welty “One Writer’s Beginnings,” Eudora Welty “The Little Store,” Eudora Welty “Listening,” Eudora Welty
“The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” Terry Tempest Williams (x 2)
“A Preface to Persius,” Edmund Wilson (x 2) “Old Stone House,” Edmund Wilson “Life is a Narrative,” Edmund Wilson
“Yeager,” Tom Wolfe (x 3) “Putting Daddy On,” Tom Wolfe “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,” Tom Wolfe
The Death of the Moth,” Virginia Woolf (x 6) “In Search of a Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf (x 2) “Leslie Stephen,” Virginia Woolf “Harriette Wilson,” Virginia Woolf “Ellen Terry,” Virginia Woolf “Street Haunting,” Virginia Woolf from Three Guineas , Virginia Woolf
Anthologies Surveyed:
The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present , ed. Philip Lopate (1997); The Best American Essays of the Century, ed. Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Atwan (2001); Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present , ed. Lex Williford and Michael Martone (2007); The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction , 14th edition, ed. Melissa Goldthwaite, Joseph Bizup, John Brereton, Anne Fernald, Linda Peterson (2015); The Norton Book of Personal Essays , ed. Joseph Epstein (1997); The Best Creative Nonfiction , ed. Lee Gutkind, Volumes 1, 2, & 3 (2007); The Signet Book of American Essays , ed. M. Jerry Weiss and Helen Weiss (2006); The Oxford Book of Essays , ed. John Gross (1991); 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology , Samuel Cohen (2011); The Eloquent Essay: An Anthology of Classic & Creative Nonfiction , ed. John Loughery (2000); The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose , Third Edition, ed. Laura Buzzard, Don LePan, Nora Ruddock, Alexandria Stuart (2016); The Next American Essay , ed. John D’Agata (2003) & The Lost Origins of the Essay , ed. John D’Agata (2009) & The Making of the American Essay , ed. John D’Agata (2016); Contemporary Creative Nonfiction , ed. B. Minh Nguyen and Porter Shreve (2005); Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: The Art of Truth , ed. Bill Roorbach (2001); 40 Model Essays , Second edition, ed. Jane E. Aaron and Ellen Kuhl Repetto (2003); The Seagull Reader: Essays , Third Edition, ed. Joseph Kelly (2015)
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The Best American Essays of the Century (The Best American Series) Paperback – October 10, 2001
- Print length 624 pages
- Language English
- Publication date October 10, 2001
- Reading age 14 years and up
- Dimensions 6 x 1.44 x 9 inches
- ISBN-10 0618155872
- ISBN-13 978-0618155873
- See all details
Editorial Reviews
". . . Oates has assembled a provocative collection of masterpieces reflecting both the fragmentation and surprising cohesiveness of various American identities." Publishers Weekly, Starred —
About the Author
JOYCE CAROL OATES is the recipient of the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the winner of the National Book Award. Among her major works are We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, and The Falls.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Product details.
- Publisher : Mariner Books; Reprint edition (October 10, 2001)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 624 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0618155872
- ISBN-13 : 978-0618155873
- Reading age : 14 years and up
- Item Weight : 1.6 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.44 x 9 inches
- #96 in American Fiction Anthologies
- #282 in Essays (Books)
- #978 in Short Stories Anthologies
About the author
Joyce carol oates.
Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
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Customers say
Customers find the essays terrific, beautifully chosen, and a great sampling of American writing from a wide span of history. They also appreciate the good short stories and great blend of fiction and nonfiction. Opinions are mixed on the reading quality, with some finding it incredible and perfect for improving reading and analysis, while others say some of the essays are boring.
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Customers find the essays terrific, beautifully written, and well-chosen. They also appreciate the variety and good content. Readers mention the book houses many important works of literature in one book. They mention it includes well-known authors and provides a good overview.
"... Includes well-know authors , but essays you likely haven’t read before." Read more
"...look that up and read that." This is basically the complete works of all those essays you've ever heard of and authors you've been meaning to..." Read more
"These are remarkable essays -- from Jane Addams' insightful account of how the devil baby notion thrives among women whose hard lives make them seek..." Read more
"...The writing was exquisite which was a pleasant respite from today's 24/7 verbal and informational assaults which are produced so quickley and..." Read more
Customers find the stories in the book good. They also say it's a great blend of fiction and nonfiction by many of the best American writers and philosophers.
"I love this collection of essays. It is a great blend of fiction and nonfiction by many of the best American writers, philosophers, and essayists." Read more
"...The self-reflections here and the stories for the most part are amazing but I would not go back for a re-read of the entire collection, only a..." Read more
"bought this book for school. But it has a bunch of good short stories in it." Read more
" Good collection of short stories . This would also be good for a beginner author who is trying to get ideas on how to create short essays." Read more
Customers find the book a valuable purchase for the money.
"...The quality of essays and the variety as well, worth the money ." Read more
"...works of literature in one book which is super convenient and makes for a great buy . i recommend this collection to all readers...." Read more
"I liked that it was hundreds of dollars cheaper compared to what my college wanted me to spend on it at the school bookstore" Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the reading quality of the book. Some mention it's incredible and perfect for improving reading and analysis skills. Others say some of the essays are boring and a waste of time.
"...And many more. They are great reading for the times when you only have a short time to read, and they engage you completely. And they stay with you...." Read more
"Good collection of short stories. This would also be good for a beginner author who is trying to get ideas on how to create short essays." Read more
"...20th century America, but in these cases they're overwhelmingly short, boring and a waste of time. You're better off just skipping them." Read more
" Interesting to read . I would not say I would recommend it." Read more
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Famous 20th Century Essayists
Right Icon This ranking is based on an algorithm that combines various factors, including the votes of our users and search trends on the internet.
The king of dystopia and satire , George Orwell, the pen name adopted by Eric Arthur Blair, was a well-known novelist and critic of the 20th century . A man with a strong mind of his own, Orwell never backed down from stating his views on the socio-political climate he lived in, which he expressed profusely through his influential essays and novels .
Amongst the greatest writers of the 20th century and a leading literary voice in the civil rights movement, James Baldwin extensively explored issues like race, sexuality and humanity in his work. His best known work include his debut novel Go Tell It on the Mountain and his books of essays Notes of a Native Son and Nobody Knows My Name .
Arthur Miller was an American essayist and playwright. Miller is credited with creating popular plays, such as Death of a Salesman , which is widely regarded as one of the best American plays of the 20th century. Thanks to his illustrious career, which spanned more than 70 years, Arthur Miller is regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists.
Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet and novelist. Her works encompass themes, such as religion and myth, climate change, and gender and identity. An award-winning writer, many of Atwood's works have been made into films and television series; her work, The Handmaid's Tale, has had several adaptations. Perhaps, Margaret Atwood's most important contribution is her invention of the LongPen device.
Gore Vidal was an American intellectual and writer. He served as a major inspiration to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals as he was openly bisexual and often incorporated LGBT characters in his novels, which was very unusual at the time. He was also known for his debates with William F. Buckley Jr., which inspired the 2015 documentary film Best of Enemies .
W. H. Auden was an Anglo-American poet. His poetry was noted for its technical achievement and versatility. He wrote poems on love, political and social themes, and cultural and psychological themes. Throughout his career, Auden was both influential and controversial. His personal life also attracted attention as he had sexual relationships with men, which was unusual at the time.
Norman Mailer was an American journalist, novelist, essayist, filmmaker, actor, and playwright. A prolific writer, Mailer had at least one best-selling book in each of the seven decades post Second World War . Overall, he had 11 best-selling books in a career spanning over 60 years. A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize , Mailer is regarded as an innovator of New Journalism.
Novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and short-story writer F. Scott Fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. However, he wasn’t much popular during his lifetime. His works gained international acclaim only in the years following his untimely death at 44. Many of his works have been adapted into films.
Best known for his iconic novels Howard’s End and A Passage to India , British author E. M. Forster dealt with themes such as class division and gender. Born in England and educated at Cambridge , he had also spent some time as a secretary to Maharaja Tukojirao III of India.
Author and public speaker Fran Lebowitz is best known for her book The Fran Lebowitz Reader , which combined the two books Metropolitan Life and Social Studies . She also gained fame with her 2021 Netflix docuseries Pretend It's a City . Openly lesbian, she has often spoken about feminism, politics, and AIDS.
Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine essayist, poet, short-story writer, and translator. An important figure in Spanish-language literature, Jorge Luis Borges' works have contributed immensely to fantasy and the philosophical literature genre. It is also said that his works, which incorporated themes like labyrinths, dreams, and mythology, marked the beginning of 20th-century Latin American literature's magic realist movement.
English author, screenwriter, and essayist, Douglas Adams, is most remembered for his comedy science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As a screenwriter, he wrote two stories for the TV series Doctor Who. He advocated for environmentalism and spoke about environmental issues in his non-fiction radio series Last Chance to See.
Freelance journalist and author Chuck Palahniuk specializes in what he calls transgressional fiction. His popular novel Fight Club was adapted into a film starring Brad Pitt and also won awards such as the Oregon Book Award for Best Novel . Though critics call his books nihilistic, he himself calls them romantic.
Author Zadie Smith was born in London to a British father and a Jamaican mother. Her bestselling debut novel, White Teeth , won numerous awards and catapulted her to fame, while her third novel, On Beauty , was shortlisted for the Booker Prize . She has also taught fiction at New York University .
French-Cuban-American diarist, essayist, and novelist Anais Nin wrote several volumes of journals, erotica, novels, critical studies, essays, and short stories. Her journals and diaries are among her most studied works. She had a deep interest in psychoanalysis and studied it extensively with René Allendy and Otto Rank. Critics consider her one of the finest writers of female erotica.
Thomas Pynchon initially joined Cornell to study engineering physics, but changed his major to English after a brief stint with the U.S. Army . A master of black humor, he soared to fame with novels such as The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice . He is media-shy and is rarely photographed.
Born to Indian descendants in Trinidad, V. S. Naipaul grew up to win the Nobel Prize in Literature . The author of iconic novels such as Half a Life and A House for Mr. Biswas , Naipaul was also knighted . His realistic depiction of developing countries and their miseries won hearts worldwide.
Maxim Gorky was a writer and political activist. He is best remembered for founding the socialist realism literary method. Gorky, who was nominated for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature on five occasions, published several novels that were later adapted into plays, films, and operas. In 1938, Valery Zhelobinsky adapted Gorky's novel Mother into an opera.
Clive James was an Australian critic, journalist, and writer who worked mainly in the United Kingdom. He had a difficult life as a young man and faced many challenges on his way to building a successful career. He began his career as a TV critic and proceeded to establish himself as a writer and poet as well.
Stanisław Lem was a Polish writer who specialized in the science fiction genre. He was also a noted essayist who wrote on varied subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. His books, which have been translated into over 50 languages, have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors.
Masaru Emoto was a Japanese author, businessman, and pseudo-scientist. He is best remembered for his New York Times bestseller book The Hidden Messages in Water in which he claimed that thought can influence the molecular structure of water. He also served as the president emeritus of a non-profit organization called International Water For Life Foundation.
Apart from her bestselling books such as The God of Small Things , Man Booker Prize -winning Indian author Arundhati Roy is also known for her left-wing political activism. Born to a Syrian Christian mother and an Indian Hindu father, Roy had initially studied architecture and worked as a script writer.
Bestselling author and essayist Sarah Vowell is known for her expertise in American history and her books such as Assassination Vacation and Unfamiliar Fishes . She is also a regular on the radio program This American Life and has voiced Violet in the animated film The Incredibles .
American author, playwright and script-writer Orson Scott Card is best-known for writing the series’ Ender's Game and The Tales of Alvin Maker . First two novels of the Ender's Game series are counted among the most influential novels of the 1980s and won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, while The Tales of Alvin Maker series won the Locus Fantasy Award .
British author Hilary Mantel initially studied law at LSU and then concentrated on her writing career after moving to Botswana with her geologist husband. Her Booker Prize -winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies , later catapulted her to fame. She divorced and remarried her husband later.
Olga Tokarczuk is a Polish writer and public intellectual. She is one of the most critically acclaimed authors of her generation in Poland. She was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature , becoming the first female Polish writer to receive the honor. Her works have been translated into almost 40 languages. She is also a clinical psychologist.
British author Nick Hornby is best known for his bestselling books Fever Pitch , High Fidelity , and About a Boy , all of which were later made into movies. A Cambridge alumnus, he had begun as a freelance journalist for publications such as GQ . He is also known for his music reviews.
August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, painter, essayist, novelist, and poet. He wrote over 30 works of fiction and more than 60 plays in an illustrious career that spanned 40 years. Widely regarded as the father of modern Swedish literature , Strindberg is best remembered for his work The Red Room, which is considered the first modern Swedish novel.
Andre Aciman is an Italian-American writer who is currently working at the CUNY Graduate Center as a professor of history of literary theory. He is best known for his literary work, which includes his Lambda Literary Award -winning novel Call Me by Your Name and his Whiting Award -winning 1995 memoir Out of Egypt .
Serge Monast was a Québécois investigative journalist, poet, and essayist. He was also known as a conspiracy theorist. He wrote extensively on the theme of the New World Order in the 1990s and was particularly inspired by the works of fellow conspiracy theorist William Guy Carr. Project Blue Beam (NASA) is one of his most popular works.
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The best American essays of the century
Fifty five unforgettable essays by the finest American writers of the twentieth century. Full description
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- Description
- Foreword / by Robert Atwan
- Introduction / by Joyce Carol Oates
- Corn-pone opinions / Mark Twain
- Of the coming of John / W.E.B. Du Bois
- A law of acceleration / Henry Adams
- Stickeen / John Muir
- The moral equivalent of war / Wiiliam James
- The handicapped / Randolph Bourne
- Coatesville / John Jay Chapman /The devil baby at Hull-house / Jane Addams
- Tradition and the individual talent / T.S. Eliot
- Pamplona in July / Ernest Hemingway
- The hills of Zion / H.L. Mencken
- How it feels to be colored me / Zora Neale Hurston
- The old stone house / Edmund Wilson
- What are master-pieces and why are there so few of them / Gertrude Stein
- The crack-up / F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Sex Ex Machina / James Thurber
- The ethics of living Jim Crow: an autobiographical sketch / Richard Wright
- Knoxville: Summer of 1915 / James Agee
- The figure a poem makes / Robert Frost
- Once more to the lake / E.B. White
- Insert flap "A" and throw away / S.J. Perelman
- Bop / Langston Hughes
- The future is now / Katherine Anne Porter
- Artists in uniform / Mary McCarthy
- The marginal world / Rachel Carson
- Notes of a native son / James Baldwin
- The brown wasps / Loren Eiseley
- A sweet devouring / Eudora Welty
- A hundred thousand straightened
- nails / Donald Hall
- Letter from Birmingham jail / Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Putting daddy on / Tom Wolfe
- Notes on "Camp" / Susan Sontag
- Perfect past / Vladimir Nabokov
- The way to rainy mountain / N. Scott Momaday
- The apotheosis of Martin Luther King / Elizabeth Hardwick
- Illumination rounds / Michael Herr
- I know why the caged bird sings / Maya Angelou
- The lives of a cell / Lewis Thomas
- The search for Marvin Gardens / John McPhee
- The doomed in their sinking / William H. Gass
- No name woman / Maxine Hong Kingston
- Looking for Zora / Alice Walker
- Women and honor: some notes on lying / Adrienne Rich
- The white album / Joan Didion
- Aria: a memoir of a bilingual childhood / Richard Rodriguez
- The solace of open spaces / Gretel Ehrlich
- Total eclipse / Annie Dillard
- A drugstore in winter / Cynthia Ozick
- Okinawa: the bloodiest battle of all / William Manchester
- Heaven and nature / Edward Hoagland
- The creation myths of Cooperstown / Stephen Jay Gould
- Life with daughters: watching the miss America Pageant / Gerald Early
- The disposable rocket / John Updike
- They all just went away / Joyce Carol Oates
- Graven images / Saul Bellow
Other Authors
Oates, Joyce Carol, 1938- (Editor, Author of introduction, etc.), Atwan, Robert. (Editor)
Main Language
Classic British and American Essays and Speeches
English Prose From Jack London to Dorothy Parker
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
- An Introduction to Punctuation
- Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
- M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
- B.A., English, State University of New York
From the works and musings of Walt Witman to those of Virginia Woolf, some of the cultural heroes and prolific artists of prose are listed below--along with some of the world's greatest essays and speeches ever composed by these British and American literary treasures.
George Ade (1866-1944)
George Ade was an America playwright, newspaper columnist and humorist whose greatest recognition was "Fables in Slang" (1899), a satire that explored the colloquial vernacular of America. Ade eventually succeeded in doing what he set out to do: Make America laugh.
- The Difference Between Learning and Learning How : "In due time the Faculty gave the Degree of M.A. to what was left of Otis and still his Ambition was not satisfied."
- Luxuries: "About sixty-five per cent of all the people in the world think they are getting along great when they are not starving to death."
- Vacations: "The planet you are now visiting may be the only one you ever see."
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
American activist Susan B. Anthony crusaded for the women's suffrage movement, making way for the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920, giving women the right to vote. Anthony is principally known for the six-volume "History of Woman Suffrage."
- On Women's Right to Vote : "The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons?"
Robert Benchley (1889-1945)
The writings of American humorist, actor and drama critic Robert Benchley are considered his best achievement. His socially awkward, slightly confused persona allowed him to write about the inanity of the world to great effect.
- Advice to Writers : "A terrible plague of insufferably artificial and affected authors"
- Business Letters : "As it stands now things are pretty black for the boy."
- Christmas Afternoon : "Done in the Manner, If Not in the Spirit of Dickens"
- Do Insects Think? : "It really was more like a child of our own than a wasp, except that it looked more like a wasp than a child of our own."
- The Most Popular Book of the Month: "In practice, the book is not flawless. There are five hundred thousand names, each with a corresponding telephone number."
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
British novelist and short-story writer Joseph Conrad rendered about the "tragedy of loneliness" at sea and became known for his colorful, rich descriptions about the sea and other exotic places. He is regarded as one of the greatest English novelists of all time.
- Outside Literature : "A sea voyage would have done him good. But it was I who went to sea--this time bound to Calcutta."
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
American Frederick Douglass' great oratory and literary skills helped him to become the first African American citizen to hold high office in the US government. He was one of the 19th century's most prominent human rights activist, and his autobiography, "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" (1882), became an American literary classic.
- The Destiny of Colored Americans : "Slavery is the peculiar weakness of America, as well as its peculiar crime."
- A Glorious Resurrection: "My long-crushed spirit rose."
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
W.E.B. Du Bois was an American scholar and human rights activist, a respected author and historian of literature. His literature and studies analyzed the unreachable depths of American racism. Du Bois' seminal work is a collection of 14 essays titled "The Souls of Black Folk" (1903).
- Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others : "Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission."
- Of the Passing of the First-Born : "He knew no color-line, poor dear--and the Veil, though it shadowed him, had not yet darkened half his sun."
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
Known foremost for his novel "The Great Gatsby," American novelist and short-story writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was also a renown playboy and had a tumultuous life compounded by alcoholism and depression. Only after his death did he become known as a preeminent American literary author.
- What I Think and Feel at 25: "The main thing is to be your own kind of a darn fool."
Ben Hecht (1894-1964)
American novelist, short-story writer and playwright Ben Hecht is remembered as one of Hollywood's greatest screenplay writers and may best be remembered for "Scarface," Wuthering Heights" and "Guys and Dolls."
- Fog Patterns : "Yes, we are all lost and wandering in the thick mists. We have no destinations."
- Letters: "You would see a procession of mysterious figures flitting through the streets, an unending swarm of dim ones, queer ones."
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
American novelist Ernest Hemingway won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his mastery of the art of narrative ... and for the influence he has exerted on contemporary style" as demonstrated in his brilliant novel "The Old Man and the Sea."
- American Bohemians in Paris: "The scum of Greenwich Village, New York, has been skimmed off and deposited in large ladles on that section of Paris adjacent to the Café Rotonde."
- Camping Out : "Any man of average office intelligence can make at least as good a pie as his wife."
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
Civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Jr., winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, may be best known for "I Have A Dream," in which he wrote about love, peace, nonviolent activism and equality between all races.
- I Have a Dream : "Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."
- Reading Quiz on "I Have a Dream"
- Ten Things You Should Know About Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" Speech
Jack London (1876-1916)
Nineteenth-century American author and journalist Jack London is best known for his adventures "White Fang" and "The Call of the Wild." London published more than 50 books over the last 16 years of his life, including "John Barleycorn," which was somewhat of a memoir about his lifelong battle with alcohol.
- The Somnambulists : "[T]his archdeceiver believes all that they tell him. He reads only the newspapers and magazines that tell him what he wants to be told."
- The Story of an Eyewitness: The San Francisco Earthquake : "Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed."
- Reading Quiz on "The San Francisco Earthquake"
- What Life Means to Me : "I accepted that up above me was all that was fine and noble and gracious, all that gave decency and dignity to life."
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
American journalist, activist and editor H.L. Mencken was also a very influential literary critic. His columns were popular not only for their literary criticism, but also for their questioning of popular political, social and cultural views.
- The Hills of Zion : "Dayton was having a roaring time. It was better than the circus."
- The Libido for the Ugly : "Out of the melting pot emerges a race which hates beauty."
- Literature and the Schoolma'm : "The essence of a sound style is that it cannot be reduced to rules."
- The Lower Depths : "The worst idiots, even among pedagogues, are the teachers of English."
- Portrait of an Ideal World : "All the great villainies of history have been perpetrated by sober men, and chiefly by teetotalers."
Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
American writer Christopher Morley was popular for his literary columns in the "New York Evening Post," among other literary magazines. His many collections of essays and columns were "lighthearted, vigorous displays of the English language."
- 1100 Words : "Let us be brief, crisp, packed with thought."
- The Art of Walking : "Sometimes it seems as though literature were a co-product of legs and head."
- A Morning in Marathon: "[W]e flashed onto the Hackensack marshes and into the fully minted gold of superb morning."
- On Going to Bed : "The happier creatures ... take the tide of sleep at the flood and are borne calmly and with gracious gentleness out to great waters of nothingness."
George Orwell (1903-1950)
This British novelist, essayist and critic is best known for his novels "1984" and "Animal Farm." George Orwell's disdain for imperialism (he considered himself an anarchist) guided him in his life as well as through some of his writings.
- A Hanging : "We all began laughing again. ... The dead man was a hundred yards away."
- Why Are Beggars Despised? : "A beggar, looked at realistically, is simply a businessman, getting his living."
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
Witty American poet and short-story writer Dorothy Parker began as an editorial assistant at "Vogue" and eventually became the book reviewer known as the "Constant Reader" for "The New Yorker." Among her hundreds of works, Parker won the 1929 O. Henry Award for her short story "Big Blond."
- Good Souls: "They are fated to go through life, congenial pariahs. They live out their little lives, mingling with the world, yet never a part of it."
- Mrs. Post Enlarges on Etiquette : "As one delves deeper and deeper into Etiquette , disquieting thoughts come."
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
British philosopher and social reformer Bertrand Russell won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought." Russell was one of the foremost philosophers of the 20th century.
- In Praise of Idleness : "The road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work."
Margaret Sanger (1879-1966)
American activist Margaret Sanger was a sex educator, nurse and women's rights advocate. She began the first feminist publication, "The Woman Rebel," in 1914.
- The Turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery: "My own cozy and comfortable family existence was becoming a reproach to me."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
An Irish dramatist and critic, George Bernard Shaw was also a socialist propagandist and winner of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature (which he didn't receive until 1926) for "his work which is marked by both idealism and beauty." Shaw wrote more than 60 plays during his lifetime.
- Preface to Pygmalion: "It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him."
- She Would Have Enjoyed It: "Why does a funeral always sharpen one's sense of humor?"
- Why Law Is Indispensable: "Laws deaden the conscience of individuals by relieving them of responsibility."
- The Art of Political Lying : "Considering that natural disposition in many men to lie, and in multitudes to believe, I have been perplexed what to do with that maxim so frequent in everybody's mouth, that truth will at last prevail."
- Hints Toward an Essay on Conversation : "This degeneracy of conversation ... hath been owing, among other causes, to the custom arisen, for sometime past, of excluding women from any share in our society."
- A Meditation Upon a Broomstick : "But a broomstick is an emblem of a tree standing on its head."
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
American essayist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau is most known for his masterful work, "Walden," about living a life close to nature. He was a dedicated abolitionist and a strong practitioner of civil disobedience.
- The Battle of the Ants : "I never learned which party was victorious, nor the cause of the war."
- The Landlord: "If we do not look up to the Landlord, we look round for him on all emergencies, for he is a man of infinite experience, who unites hands with wit."
- The Last Days of John Brown : "[T]he one great rule of composition--and if I were a professor of rhetoric I should insist on this--is, to speak the truth ."
James Thurber (1894-1961)
American author and illustrator James Thurber is best known for his contributions to "The New Yorker." Via his contributions to the magazine, his cartoons became some of the most popular in the United States.
- The Subjunctive Mood : "Husbands are suspicious of all subjunctives. Wives should avoid them."
- Which: "Never monkey with 'which.'"
Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)
British author Anthony Trollope is best known for his writing in the Victorian Era--some of his work includes a series of novels known as "The Chronicles of Barsetshire." Trollope also wrote on political, social and gender issues.
- The Plumber : "The plumber is doubtless aware that he is odious. He feels himself, like Dickens's turnpike-man, to be the enemy of mankind."
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Mark Twain was an American humorist, journalist, lecturer and novelist best known for his classic American novels "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." With his wit and grand telling of tales, Twain is nothing short of an American national treasure.
- Advice to Youth : "Always obey your parents, when they are present."
- Corn-Pone Opinions : "Tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is."
- The Danger of Lying in Bed : "The danger isn't in traveling by rail, but in trusting to those deadly beds."
- A Fable : "You can find in a text whatever you bring."
- Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences : " Deerslayer is just simply a literary delirium tremens."
- The Lowest Animal : "[W]e have descended and degenerated ... till we have reached the bottom stage of development."
- On the Decay of the Art of Lying: "Lying is universal: we all do it; we all must do it."
- Two Ways of Seeing a River : "All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river!"
- Unconscious Plagiarism : "[P]ride protects a man from deliberately stealing other people's ideas."
H.G. Wells (1866-1944)
British author and historian H.G. Wells is best known for his works of science fiction, including "The Time Machine," "The First Men in the Moon" and "The War of the Worlds." Wells wrote an astounding 161 full-length books.
- For Freedom of Spelling: The Discovery of an Art: "Why should correct spelling be the one absolutely essential literary merit?"
- Of Conversation: An Apology: "I am no blowfly to buzz my way through the universe."
- The Pleasure of Quarrelling : "Without quarreling you have not fully appreciated your fellow-man."
- The Possible Collapse of Civilisation: "Modern warfare is an insanity, not a sane business proposition."
- The Writing of Essays: "The art of the essayist ... may be learnt in a brief ten minutes or so."
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
American poet and journalist Walt Whitman's verse collection "Leaves of Grass" is an American literature landmark. Ralph Waldo Emerson praised the collection as "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom" America had yet contributed.
- A Glimpse of War's Hell Scenes: "There was no exultation, very little said, almost nothing, yet every man there contributed his shot."
- Slang in America : "Language in the largest sense ... is really the greatest of studies."
- Street Yarn: "Come and walk in New York streets."
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
British author Virginia Woolf may be best known for her modernist classics "Mrs. Dalloway" and "To the Lighthouse." But she also produced feminist texts such as "A Room of One's Own" and "Three Guineas" and wrote pioneering essays on the politics of power, artistic theory and literary history.
- The Decay of Essay Writing : "Under the decent veil of print one can indulge one's egoism to the full."
- The Modern Essay : "The essay must lap us about and draw its curtain across the world."
- The Patron and the Crocus : "Be sure you choose your patron wisely."
- Street Haunting: A London Adventure : "Into each of these lives one could penetrate a little way."
- Writing for My Eye Only: "I can trace some increase of ease in my professional writing which I attribute to my casual half hours after tea."
- Definition and Examples of Humorous Essays
- Talking Together: An Introduction to Conversation Analysis
- The Essay: History and Definition
- An Overview of Classical Rhetoric
- Of Travel by Francis Bacon
- First-Person Point of View
- The Parts of a Speech in Classical Rhetoric
- What Is Enlightenment Rhetoric?
- 100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction
- Mark Twain's Top 10 Writing Tips
- What is a Familiar Essay in Composition?
- Ted Sorensen on the Kennedy Style of Speech-Writing
- The Art of Public Speaking
- What Are the Different Types and Characteristics of Essays?
- Division: Outlining the Parts of a Speech
- The Difference Between an Article and an Essay
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- Portuguese (Brazil)
- Portuguese (Portugal)
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