The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present

A monumental, canon-defining anthology of three centuries of American essays, from Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin to David Foster Wallace and Zadie Smith-selected by acclaimed essayist Phillip Lopate

"Not only an education but a joy. This is a book for the ages." -Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances

The essay form is an especially democratic one, and many of the essays Phillip Lopate has gathered here address themselves-sometimes critically-to American values. We see the Pu...