Introduction To Reading and Writing Essays
Virginia Woolf
"Common Readers" (essay volumes), "Death of a Moth"
Thomas Paine
"Common Sense", The Crisis
MLK Jr.
"I Have a Dream" , essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
Joan Didion
"Marrying Absurd"- Las Vegas Weddings, wrote about social issues in the 60's
Sei Shonagon
Japanese court lady (from the 10th century), wrote pillow books: private journals
Maxine Hong Kingston
Power and place of gender in the traditional China, No Name Woman: woman becomes pregnant while unmarried.
Essaie/Essayer
to try or attempt
Pico Lyer
"No Where Man", loungers
Henry David Thoreau
"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", Walden: Book of Essays
William Hazlitt
"On the Pleasure of Hating," English literary critic: essays should have more "gusto" and stressed the importance of feeling in writing
Tom Wolfe
"One life: Culture in the 60's", The Electric Kool-aid acid test (nonfiction)
George Orwell
Animal Farm, "Shooting and Elephant", wrote about imperialism
E.B. White
Charlotte's Web, Wrote columns for Harpers in The New Yorker.
Yoshida Kenko
Japanese poet and Buddhist monk, "Essays in Idleness", wrote fragmentary essays that echoed the brush strokes of zen painting, essays lamented the passing of customs
James Thurber
Drew satirical cartoons, short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "Is sex necessary?"
Judith Ortiz Cofer
Dual culture and linguistic identity, A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood
Samuel Johnson
English essayist, committed tory, famous for satirical tone, published in his periodicals The Rambler, Idler, and Adventurer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays came from public lecture, delivered encouraging speeches to inspire people to be self-reliant and sufficient. (Ex. Hitch your wagon to a star, trust thyself, and give all to love.)
Charles Lamb
Essays of Elia (personal, conversational), life-long bachelor, "A Bachelor's Complaint"
Francis Bacon
Father of the English Essay, essays were less personal and gave advice on how to live
Michel de Montaigne
French essayist who named the genre "essais" meaning attempts, Father of the Modern Essay, personal tone (casual annecdotes)
Jonathan Swift
Gulliver's Travels, the satire "A Modest Proposal"
Plutarch
Parallel Lives: noble deeds of Greek and Roman leaders and soldiers, Influenced the art of the biography.
Ben Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, famous for his aphorisms (Ex. Fish and visitors stink after three days.)
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
Teamed together to publish in periodicals on manners, "The Tatler" and "The Speculator" (British Journals), new way of journalism
Aphorism
The expression of general truth. (Ex. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.)
N. Scott Momaday
Writes about native american tradition in grandmother's pov reflecting on cultural values of the Kiowa tribe, "The Way to Rainy Mountain"
Gretel Ehrlich
Writes about what real cowboys and the truth about their lives in the west, collection of essays in Islands, The Universe, Home
Frederick Douglas
Wrote about his struggle for literacy as a black slave, "Learning to Read and Write"
James Baldwin
Wrote about race in America and his position as a black writer, Notes from a Native Son: essays about his father and race in Europe and America.
Seneca
Wrote essays in classic oratory on topics like "Asthma": Described an attack and his reaction, and "Noise"
