The Oxford Book of American Essays

This anthology captures a moment when American writers were actively defining what it meant to think and write as Americans. Curated by Brander Matthews for Oxford University Press, the collection gathers essays from the colonial era through the early twentieth century, presenting the American essay as its own distinct art form, more pragmatic, more personally voiced, more interested in the texture of everyday life than its British cousin. Here Benjamin Franklin argues with his gout in wry dialogue, meditates on a child's whistle as an emblem of human desire, and offers consolation to old bachelors. Ralph Waldo Emerson and others follow, interrogating what makes American literature American and whether such a distinction even matters. The result is a portrait of the American mind working through questions of identity, culture, and the essay's capacity to capture life as it's actually lived. These are not dry academic pieces but vital, often funny, always engaged writings from thinkers who believed the essay could illuminate everything from acting to foreign condescension. For readers seeking the roots of American literary voice, this collection offers it in its most immediate and entertaining form.