

Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists? - michael_nielsen

Like many people, I discovered HN after reading several of PG's essays. I'd like to hear HNers recommendations for other essayists, especially essayists who aren't the usual tech suspects (PG, Clay Shirky, etc).<p>For example, a favourite essayist of mine is
John McPhee, a long-time New Yorker staff writer.  McPhee's writings don't seem to be online, but collections of his essays can be found in any good bookstore.  I especially enjoyed "A Roomful of Hovings", a superb profile of a former curator of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, and "The Curve of Binding Energy", a profile of Ted Taylor, one of the most brilliant designers in the US nuclear weapon program, and also the visionary behind Project Orion (using nuclear power for interplanetary travel).  A good place to start is the "John McPhee Reader" (http://www.amazon.com/John-McPhee-Reader/dp/0374517193); I was skeptical when I picked it up on a friend's recommendation, but found that I couldn't put it down.
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wwortiz
I really like Isaac Asimov's essays, at least most of the ones I have read.

There are a huge number of them on many topics too:
<http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/essay_guide.html>

(A little searching and many/most of them are on someones website somewhere)

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kksm19820117
This site doesn't seem to be loading at the moment.

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d4ft
Christopher Hitchens is on my list. This essay was, in my opinion, one of the
best I've ever read:
[http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-...](http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-201009)

Also, although the topics are fairly silly, Cary Tennis is another author with
an interesting style and a deep insight into human nature:
<http://www.salon.com/life/since_you_asked/index.html>

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Willwhatley
Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery (1976)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Selzer>

I've read only this book of essays. His shining part is an unusually polished
eloquence.

\-- Most of Umberto Eco is interesting at least.

\-- I like Montaigne.
[http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/montaigne/m-ess...](http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/montaigne/m-essays_contents.html)

~~~
zoomzoom
Montaigne is also cool because he gets credit in most English deptartments for
inventing the "essay" - at least in it's modern form. Kevin Kelly at kk.org is
a good read for tech thinking.

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regulartoaster
William Deresiewicz. Here are two essays I really enjoyed and agreed with:

[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-
el...](http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-
education/)

<http://www.theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/>

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kmort
I find a great sampling of many essayists is the Edge Foundation's yearly
"world question".

Not only do you get a great set of short essays, but also some insight into
many great minds on loosely the same question.

<http://www.edge.org/questioncenter.html>

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forkandwait
My grandfather's favorite essayist was E. B. White. He wrote for the New
Yorker in the middle of the last century, as well as writing Charlotte's Web
and a ton of other books. I don't remember the content of anything he wrote
(except that rural Maine was really nice), but his prose style was amazing.

~~~
rwl
I love E. B. White. The year I read "One Man's Meat" (a collection of his New
Yorker columns about his life in Maine from the WWII era), I think I gave it
to six people for Christmas. He was a true master of the form.

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dmlorenzetti
I really like Adam Gopnik, also from the New Yorker. He often teases out
cultural or historical aspects of whatever topic he's on, and he can also make
interesting analogies between disparate subjects.

I particularly liked his semi-regular "Paris Journal" pieces (now collected in
"Paris to the Moon"). He used his life in Paris as a way of thinking about
life in America. It included a brilliant extended comparison of President
Clinton to the children's TV character Barney. "Barney is Bill Clinton for
three-year-olds. Or rather, Bill Clinton is Barney for adults. He serves the
same role for jumpy American liberals that Barney does for their children: He
reassures without actually instructing..."

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dvvarf
Michael Lewis gets amazing access for the pieces he writes about finance. Not
too technical, but he really gets into the characters that are involved with
different parts of the industry. He's also one of the lucky writers who can
write about anything that piques his interest at a given time (Moneyball,
Blind Side, and essays in the same vein), so those are worth checking out as
well.

Atul Gawande is a great medicine writer. He was at Slate for a while, but he's
been writing for the New Yorker for the last few years.

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alextp
A very good source of essays is the New Yorker magazine. I subscribe to the
print version, but the online version is cheap, and many good essays are
actually free on their website.

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Nicolo_Borghi
Italo Calvino and his "Six Memos for the next millennium" should be a must-
read for every developer/entrepreneur

He speaks about literature but I personally see the Memos having a lot in
common with how to make a lean startup.

They are:

    
    
       1. Lightness
       2. Quickness
       3. Exactitude
       4. Visibility
       5. Multiplicity

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asher
G.K. Chesterton

A century old, but often still relevant.

For instance: The Modern Martyr

[http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/all-things-
consi...](http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/all-things-
considered/13/)

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george_george
Theodore Dalrymple is great.

This is one of his best: [http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_3_urbanities-
how_and_how...](http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_3_urbanities-
how_and_how_no.html)

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timruffles
'The Idler' has some great stuff (<http://idler.co.uk/>); apart from that
Alaine de Botton is my favourite.

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anukulrm
Matthew Arnold's essays are very interesting and fun to read. He is from lay
1800s but the writing is superb!

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timruffles
Culture and Anarchy, or the others? What's it like reading from a US
perspective (I'm UK)?

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pathik
PG, hands down. Besides him, I also enjoy the writings of Carl Sagan, Isaac
Asimov, Richard Dawkins and some more.

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schn
Dijkstra is very entertaining.

