# What are your favorite essays? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2008, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010 "2008-05-12T10:44:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/21 "2008-05-13T20:46:03Z")
Dammit. **Thudlow** beat me to it. I love Chesterton. I don’t know if it counts as an essay, but Annie Dillard’s _An Expedition to the Pole_ is also great. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/22 "2008-05-13T21:27:44Z")
My favorite humorous essay is Fran Lebowitz’s [Tips For Teens](http://www.bizbag.com/Tips%20for%20Teens/Tips%20for%20Teens.htm). My favorite essayist is John McPhee. I highly recommend _The John McPhee Reader_, even though it’s 30 years old now. His _Looking For A Ship_ is one of my very favorite books. _Uncommon Carriers_ (his latest, 2006) is also very good. But I can’t think of a single specific essay I love; I just really like them all. ---
**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/23 "2008-05-14T00:00:56Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] My favorite essayist is John McPhee. I highly recommend _The John McPhee Reader_, even though it’s 30 years old now. His _Looking For A Ship_ is one of my very favorite books. _Uncommon Carriers_ (his latest, 2006) is also very good. But I can’t think of a single specific essay I love; I just really like them all. [/QUOTE] I’m also a big McPhee fan, having discovered him as an undergrad back in the early 80s. There is a second John McPhee reader, which contains some of his later essays; IIRC it was published 10 or so years ago. I’ve managed to read all of his works over the last 25 or so years; his works have impressive breadth & depth. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/24 "2008-05-14T00:56:08Z")
[Report of the PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Volume 2, Appendix F- Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle by R. P. Feynman](http://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v2appf.htm) Last line: > [@Dick Feynman](#): > > For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. [The Bad Astronomy Blog](http://www.badastronomy.com/) - much good stuff there. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/25 "2008-05-14T01:08:50Z")
Sir Franics Bacon - [Of Death](http://www.authorama.com/essays-of-francis-bacon-3.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/26 "2008-05-14T01:17:24Z")
Gore Vidal’s “The National Security State” and “Cue the Green God, Ted” are two of my favorites. In the past decade the death of his longtime partner, health problems, and a seeming general self-pity over being a literary Norma Desmond have seen his essays get increasingly provocative to the point of loopiness (9-11 conspiracy theories/Timothy McVeigh was framed/American involvement in WW2 was totally unnecessary, etc.) but these were written in the 80s when he was more biting and less bitter. [In the Beginning was the Command Line](http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html) by novelist/programmer Neal Stephenson is one of the best I’ve ever read on technology. ---
**Author:** ![whistlepig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@whistlepig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whistlepig)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/27 "2008-05-14T01:39:18Z")
Years ago (early '90s?) Harpers magazine ran an essay on “the desire for an end”. It was about living with suicidal tendencies, written by a man in his 50’s. It was about living with the desire for suicide and how one can get tired of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. As someone who sometimes has the desire for an end, it was a good essay. I tried to find it in Harper’s archives but without subscriber access I would have to search by year, then by month, then by issue. More work than I want to do tonight. The other is Jimmy Carter’s Law Day speech. He was running for President and was invited to speak at the University of Georgia. He gave a speech that was critical of the legal system. That takes a lot of guts for a Presidential candidate. One of my favorite qoutes: “You can go to the prisons of Georgia, and I don’t know, it may be that poor people are the only ones who commit crimes, but I do know that they are the only ones who serve prison sentences” [Here’s the speech.](http://www.narsil.org/politics/carter/law_day.html) ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/28 "2008-05-14T01:44:47Z")
[QUOTE=mswas] Sir Franics Bacon - [Of Death](http://www.authorama.com/essays-of-francis-bacon-3.html) [/QUOTE] Out of the corner of my eye all I saw was “Bacon of Death” and did a doubletake. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/29 "2008-05-14T19:37:46Z")
Benjamin Franklin’s [Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress](http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/51-fra.html) ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/30 "2008-05-14T19:45:54Z")
[QUOTE=mbh] Benjamin Franklin’s [Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress](http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/51-fra.html) [/QUOTE] Yes, that one is fabulous. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/31 "2008-05-14T21:25:06Z")
Carl Sagan wrote several that greatly inspired me. The one that influenced my viewpoint the most was probably [Is it possible to be both pro-choice and pro-life?](http://www.2think.org/abortion.shtml); I was already pro-choice, but at the same time had some ethical problems with it, and Sagan gives an excellent “when it should be considered a human” arguments. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/32 "2008-05-15T01:26:25Z")
Since Russell’s essay has been mentioned, we might as well include a link to Chesterton’s [Why I am a Christian](http://www.chesterton.org/gkc/theologian/whychristian.htm). (Unfortunately the formatting on that page is lousy. If someone has a link to a better edition please post it.) ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/33 "2008-05-15T01:35:48Z")
[William Faulkner’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in literature (1950).](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/williamfaulknernobelprizeaddress.htm) ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/34 "2008-05-15T01:52:49Z")
I was just reading this again earlier today: [Bugs Bunny, Greatest Banned Ballplayer Ever](http://ussmariner.com/2006/03/12/bugs-bunny-greatest-banned-player-ever/). ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/35 "2008-05-15T04:12:58Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] I was just reading this again earlier today: [Bugs Bunny, Greatest Banned Ballplayer Ever](http://ussmariner.com/2006/03/12/bugs-bunny-greatest-banned-player-ever/). [/QUOTE] Thanks! I’d never seen that before - it was fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Them](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/36 "2008-05-15T11:18:57Z")
He’s largely retired now, but almost anything by Lewis Lapham is brilliant (Lapham was chief editor at _Harper’s_ for quite a while). It’s hard to pick out one essay in particular, but I’ll go ahead and take his parody rewrite of _A Christmas Carol_ from…I’ll say 1996, I’m not in the mood to hunt it down right now. Also - when he sucked, which was often - he sucked bad, but until about 1975, Hunter Thompson kicked out some amazing material. _The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved_ is bundled into any copy of _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_. Thanks to everyone for mentioning all this GREAT reading! I’ve bookmarked this thread so I can come back and go over it all. You people are the best. 🙂🙂🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/37 "2008-05-15T15:15:36Z")
Here are some more vintage Chesterton essays: [The Common Man](http://www.chesterton.org/gkc/Distributist/The%20Common%20Man.htm) [The Twelve Men](http://www.chesterton.org/gkc/essayist/12men.html) [The Medical Mistake and Wanted: An Unpractical Man](http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/whats_wrong.html) The last link is too an entire book, but the first two chapters also function just fine as stand-alone essays. Here’s a sample. > [@](#): > > This is the arresting and dominant fact about modern social discussion; that the quarrel is not merely about the difficulties, but about the aim. We agree about the evil; it is about the good that we should tear each other’s eyes out. We all admit that a lazy aristocracy is a bad thing. We should not by any means all admit that an active aristocracy would be a good thing. We all feel angry with an irreligious priesthood; but some of us would go mad with disgust at a really religious one. Everyone is indignant if our army is weak, including the people who would be even more indignant if it were strong. The social case is exactly the opposite of the medical case. We do not disagree, like doctors, about the precise nature of the illness, while agreeing about the nature of health. On the contrary, we all agree that England is unhealthy, but half of us would not look at her in what the other half would call blooming health . Public abuses are so prominent and pestilent that they sweep all generous people into a sort of fictitious unanimity. We forget that, while we agree about the abuses of things, we should differ very much about the uses of them. Mr. Cadbury and I would agree about the bad public house. It would be precisely in front of the good public-house that our painful personal fracas would occur. > > I maintain, therefore, that the common sociological method is quite useless: that of first dissecting abject poverty or cataloguing prostitution. We all dislike abject poverty; but it might be another business if we began to discuss independent and dignified poverty. We all disapprove of prostitution; but we do not all approve of purity. The only way to discuss the social evil is to get at once to the social ideal. We can all see the national madness; but what is national sanity? I have called this book “What Is Wrong with the World?” and the upshot of the title can be easily and clearly stated. What is wrong is that we do not ask what is right. ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010/38 "2008-05-15T15:39:36Z")
[Diddling](http://www.online-literature.com/poe/2183/) by Edgar Allan Poe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-essays/449010.md?page=1)