The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present

phillip lopate

For more than four hundred years, the personal essay has been one of the richest and most vibrant of all literary forms. Distinguished from the detached formal essay by its friendly, conversational tone, its loose structure, and its drive toward candor and self-disclosure, the personal essay seizes on the minutiae of daily life-vanities, fashions, foibles, oddballs, seasonal rituals, love and disappointment, the pleasures of solitude, reading, taking a walk -- to offer insight into the human condition and the great social and political issues of the day. "The Art of the Personal Essay" is the first anthology to celebrate this fertile genre. By presenting more than seventy-five personal essays, including influential forerunners from ancient Greece, Rome, and the Far East, masterpieces from the dawn of the personal essay in the sixteenth century, and a wealth of the finest personal essays from the last four centuries, editor Phillip Lopate, himself an acclaimed essayist, displays the tradition of the personal essay in all its historical grandeur, depth, and diversity."A wonderful book. The most charming smorgasbord imaginable of essays from around the world." -- Diane Cole, "USA Today."

"Without a doubt, this is the most nourishing essay collection I've read in years." -- Susan Burmeister-Brown, "Portland Oregonian."

"A labor of deeply felt love and keenly honed scholarship by an essay authority who knows his territory down to his bones." -- "Christian Science Monitor."

"The best available [essay anthology] no matter how crowded the field." -- "Chicago Tribune."

"The striking thing is how much Lopate has managed to pack in, and howhigh a standard he has managed to maintain." -- John Gross, "New York Newsday."

"Packed with personality and beguiling first-person prose... of reminders of the perils and pleasures of the craft." -- "The Wall Street Journal."

Genres essayswritingnonfictionanthologiesmemoirreferenceliteratureschoolhistoryread for school

777 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1994

This edition

Format: 777 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 1994 by Doubleday
ISBN: 9780385422987
ASIN: 0385422989
Language: English

About the author

phillip lopate

Phillip Lopate is the author of three personal essay collections, two novels, two poetry collections, a memoir of his teaching experiences, and a collection of his movie criticism. He has edited the following anthologies, and his essays, fiction, poetry, film and architectural criticism have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Essays, The Paris Review, Harper's, Vogue, Esquire, New York Times, Harvard Educational Review, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants. After working with children for twelve years as a writer in the schools, he taught creative writing and literature at Fordham, Cooper Union, University of Houston, and New York University. He currently holds the John Cranford Adams Chair at Hofstra University, and also teaches in the MFA graduate programs at Columbia, the New School and Bennington.