The Eloquent Essay »

John Loughery is the author of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize finalist John Sloan: Painter and Rebel and has edited the anthologies
First Sightings: Contemporary Stories of American Youth, Into the Widening World: International Coming-of-Age Stories, and The Eloquent Essay: An Anthology of Classic & Creative Nonfiction. He teaches English at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City.

A concise anthology of superb classic and creative nonfiction from the twentieth century.

KLIATT

Author, editor, and teacher John Loughery suggests in his introduction that "essays continue to find enthusiastic, even passionate audiences." The readers of this aptly named collection will be added to that group. Loughery presents 17 essays chronologically, beginning with George Orwell's "A Hanging" (1931) and concluding with Opal Palmer Adisa's "Lying in the Tall Grasses, Eating Cane" (1998). In between are works by such luminaries as W. H. Auden, Eudora Welty, Martin Luther King, Jr., Bruno Bettelheim, and Amy Tan as well as works by lesser-known writers such as Pico Iyer, Ann S. Causey, and Ellen Ullman. This selection validates what Loughery terms "the vitality of a living tradition." Clearly, these essays have been selected not only for what the writer has to say on a given topic, but also for the writer's use of techniques that convey that message most effectively to the reader. Simply put, there is not a bad essay in the lot. Eudora Welty in "Writing and Analyzing a Story" offers insights into the craft of short story writing after cautioning her reader that "story writing and critical analysis are indeed separate gifts, like spelling and playing the flute." In "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King, Jr. movingly reminds us that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Leo Marx comments in "Huck at 100" that the centenary of Huckleberry Finn has been characterized by a "curious conjunction of celebration and denunciation." In "In Praise of the Humble Comma," Pico Iyer cleverly suggests that "Punctuation, then, is a matter of care." Lewis Thomas in "Becoming a Doctor" recommends that medical school curriculums be adjusted to allow for "a few courses inmedical ignorance." One final example is that of Carl Sagan, who in "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection" provides his readers with "tools for skeptical thinking." Of particular note is a Teacher's Guide available for those who want to use The Eloquent Essay as a textbook. Loughery's guiding principle here is the belief that "students in English classes write . in too proscribed a fashion." Thus, most of the assignments in the guide are not geared toward writing about the essay just read, but rather writing in that form. In doing so, it is Loughery's hope that students realize "how much analytical and creative writing have in common." The questions and topics for class discussion as well as the possible assignments are worthwhile, fun, and challenging. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Persea, 192p, 21cm, 99-13309, $12.95. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Anthony J. Pucci; English Dept. Chair., Notre Dame H.S., Elmira, NY, September 2000 (Vol. 34 No. 5)