It is much better to be tied to one wonderful thing than to allow a mere catalog of wonderful things to deprive you of the capacity to wonder.
G. K. Chesterton
Of all forms of literature, however, the essay is the one which least calls for the use of long words.
Virginia Woolf
Were we to illuminate the most ordinary, common, and familiar of things, then the greatest miracles of nature and the most marvelous examples, especially concerning human actions, might be formed.
Michel de Montaigne
Others have taken heart to speak of themselves because they found the subject worthy and rich; I, on the contrary, because I have found mine so pointless and so meager that no one could suspect me of ostentation.
Michel de Montaigne
Everything I see or hear is an essay in bud. The world is everywhere whispering essays, and one need only be the world’s amanuensis.
Alexander Smith
[The "light" essay] offers no instruction, save through the medium of enjoyment, and one saunters lazily along with a charming unconsciousness of effort.
Agnes Repplier
The task of the essayist is to collect the fruit of his experience, reflect on it, and set it out for our consideration.
Ian Jack
The world is not so much in need of new thoughts as that when thought grows old and worn with usage it should, like current coin, be called in, and, from the mint of genius, reissued fresh and new.
Alexander Smith
And on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own rump.
Michel de Montaigne
One can tie up all moral philosophy with an ordinary and private life just as easily as with a life of richer stuff: Each person bears the entire form of the human condition.
Michel de Montaigne
As it maps the territory of the self, the essay details the particulars of everyday life…. The wonder is not that art can be made of such ordinary stuff, but that we should expect it to be found anywhere else.
G. Douglas Atkins
As for me … I enjoy living among pedestrians who have an instinctive and habitual realization that there is more to a journey than the mere fact of arrival.
E. B. White

Resources on the Personal Essay

If you are unfamiliar with the personal essay, here are just a few resources to help you to get better acquainted:

Anthologies

Phillip Lopate (ed.). The Art of the Personal Essay: an anthology from the classical era to the present. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.

  • Lopate’s introduction, which discusses various characteristics of the personal essay genre, is very good.

John Gross (ed.). The Oxford Book of Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

  • A nice overview of classic essays.

John D’Agata (ed.). The Lost Origins of the Essay. St. Paul: Graywolf Press, 2009.

  • D’Agata explores the margins of the essay. You may not agree that some pieces are essays at all, but the collection does offer an interesting perspective on the genre.

http://essays.quotidiana.org/

  • Quotidiana is an online anthology of classic essays, from antiquity to the early twentieth century.

The Inspiration for Modern Essayists

Michel de Montaigne. The Complete Works.Translated by Donald M. Frame. New York: Everyman’s Library, 2003.

Online:

A Few Examples of Recent Essay Collections
(more to come)

Anne Fadiman. At Large and At Small. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Joseph Epstein. Narcissus Leaves the Pool: familiar essays. Boston: Mariner Books, 2007 (first published 1999).

Patrick Madden. Quotidiana. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.

On Style

E. B. White. "An Approach to Style.." In The Elements of Style. Fourth edition. By William Strunk and E. B. White. New York: Longman, 2000. pp. 66-85.

Joseph M. Williams. Style: toward clarity and grace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

 

Share this:

Facebook Twitter BloggerDigg Delicious Google Mister Wong Mixx Netvouz Orkut Reddit Diigo Stumbleupon Wordpress Yahoo! Bookmark Yahoo! Buzz Email