25 Great Essays

William Hazlitt

"A Bachelor's Complaint"

George Orwell

"Animal Farm" "1984" "Shooting an Elephant". Hates imperialism

Tom Wolfe

"Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test"

Richard Rodriquez

Bilingual. Wrote about terrorism.

Zora Neale Hurston

Pride in being a black women. "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Jonathan Swift

"Modest proposal..."

Samuel Johnson

"The Rambler, Idler, and Adventurer"

Addison and Steele

"The Tattler and The Spectator". Made 3 publications per week

Sei Shonagon

10th Century Japanese Courtlady

Ben Franklin

Aphorisms

Virginia Woolf

Consciousness style. "Death of a moth"

Gretel Ehrlich

Cowboys

Frances Bacon

English. Formal writing.

Montaigne

Father of the Modern Essay. Personal writing style. "Of A Monstrous Child"

Kenko

Fragmented Essays like zen paintings

Essaie/ Essayer

French verb for try or attempt. Made by Montang

Plutarch

Greek. "Parallel Lives"

Charles Lamb

Gusto and feelings are important

Frederick Douglass

His master's wife taught him to read. Freed Slave.

James Thurber

Humorist. Cartoonist. "Secret life of Walter Mitty"

Henry David Thoreau

Nature. "Walden" "Cant keep pace with his companion, he's listening to a different drummer"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature. Aphoristic Style. "Hitch your wagon to a Star"

Maxine Hong Kingston

Place of gender in China

Thomas Paine

Political essays. "The Crisis"

James Baldwin

Race relations and his place in society. Expatriate.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Racial prejudice and injustice. "Letter of Birmingham Jail"

Jean Didion

Social issues in 60's. "Marrying Absurd: Weddings in Las Vegas"

Seneca

Wrote about common topics like asthma and noise

M. Scott Momaday

Wrote about native american traditions. Had an indian grandmother

E.B. White

Wrote for children. "Charlotte's Web"