Essayism begins with Michel de Montaigne. When the French writer published the first two volumes of Essais in 1580, he was not establishing a literary genre in the modern sense. He was attempting something more personal and, ultimately, more revolutionary. The title itself came from the French word essai, meaning an attempt or trial. Montaigne…

If Michel de Montaigne established the essay as a form of inquiry, Francis Bacon transformed it into a form of observation. The two men were near contemporaries. Montaigne’s Essais first appeared in 1580. Bacon’s first collection of essays was published in 1597, less than two decades later. Yet despite their proximity in time, they approached…

What happens when essaying ceases to be a private act and becomes a public conversation? The question marks a turning point in the history of essaying. With Michel de Montaigne, the essay begins in solitude. A man retreats to his library and turns examination inward. The self becomes both subject and instrument. The essay is…

When readers first encounter Charles Lamb (1775-1834), they often discover an essayist who seems instantly familiar. Unlike Francis Bacon, who writes with aphoristic authority, or Addison and Steele, who observe society from a semi-public platform, Lamb invites us into a more personal world. His essays are populated by memories, friendships, books, streets, habits and small…