Contents

Contents Preface

xvii

INTRODUCTION: READING AND WRITING ESSAYS

1

History and Context 1 Pleasures of the Essay 5 Types of Essays 7 Reading Essays 9 Reading Annie Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” 10 Writing Essays 15 The Qualities of Good Writing 15 An Overview of the Writing Process 16 Planning 16 Drafting 17 Revising 18 Writing from Reading—An Example 19 Arriving at an Interpretation 30 SUSAN SONTAG’S “A Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?” 31 MAYA ANGELOU Graduation

35

GLORIA ANZALDÚA How to Tame a Wild Tongue W.H. AUDEN Work, Labor, and Play FRANCIS BACON Of Studies RUSSELL BAKER Growing Up

48

60

63 66 ix

x * Contents

JAMES BALDWIN Notes of a Native Son

73

JAMES BALDWIN Stranger in the Village DAVE BARRY Road Warrior

94

107

MARY CATHERINE BATESON Attending a World 111 SUSAN BROWNMILLER Femininity 126 JANE BROX Influenza 1918

132

ANGELA CARTER The Wound in the Face 141 JUDITH ORTIZ COFER The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria 147 JUDITH ORTIZ COFER Casa: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood BERNARD COOPER Burl’s 161 AARON COPLAND How We Listen

172

CHARLES DARWIN Natural Selection 179 GUY DAVENPORT The Geography of the Imagination 192 JOAN DIDION Marrying Absurd JOAN DIDION On Self-Respect

207 212

ANNIE DILLARD Living Like Weasels

217

155

Contents * xi

ANNIE DILLARD Jest and Earnest

223

JOHN DONNE No Man is an Island

228

FREDERICK DOUGLASS Learning to Read and Write

231

W.E.B. DUBOIS Of Our Spiritual Striving 238 ANDRE DUBUS Light of the Long Night

247

GRETEL EHRLICH About Men 251 LOREN EISELEY The Flow of the River 256 QUEEN ELIZABETH I Speech to the Troops at Tilbury RALPH ELLISON Living with Music

264

266

RALPH WALDO EMERSON Nature 276 ANNE FADIMAN Never Do That to a Book E.M. FORSTER What I Believe

280

286

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Arriving at Perfection

296

SIGMUND FREUD The Interpretation of Dreams HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR. In the Kitchen 310 ELLEN GOODMAN The Company Man 318

301

xii * Contents

NADINE GORDIMER Where Do Whites Fit In?

321

MARY GORDON More than Just a Shrine—Ellis Island STEPHEN JAY GOULD Women’s Brains

326

332

WILLIAM HAZLITT On the Pleasure of Hating 340 EDWARD HOAGLAND The Courage of Turtles

351

BARBARA HOLLAND Naps 359 LANGSTON HUGHES Salvation 364 THOMAS JEFFERSON The Declaration of Independence 368 FRANZ KAFKA Letter to His Father

377

JAMAICA KINCAID On Seeing England for the First Time JAMAICA KINCAID The Ugly Tourist

398

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Letter from Birmingham Jail MAXINE HONG KINGSTON On Discovery 419 MAXINE HONG KINGSTON Silence 422 CHARLES LAMB A Bachelor’s Complaint ROBIN TOLMACH LAKOFF You are What You Say

428 436

402

386

Contents * xiii

D.H. LAWRENCE On Ben Franklin’s Virtues 444 CHANG-RAE LEE Coming Home Again

448

ABRAHAM LINCOLN The Gettysburg Address BARRY LOPEZ The Stone Horse

459

461

NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI The Morals of the Prince NANCY MAIRS On Being a Cripple

472

481

KARL MARX AND FRIEDERICH ENGELS The Communist Manifesto 495 JOHN MCPHEE from “The Encircled River” H.L. MENCKEN Portrait of an Ideal World

504 514

N. SCOTT MOMADAY The Way to Rainy Mountain 519 MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE On Cannibals 526 MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Of Smells 539 JOYCE CAROL OATES On Boxing 542 GEORGE ORWELL Politics and the English Language GEORGE ORWELL Shooting an Elephant 569 CYNTHIA OZICK The Seam of the Snail

577

555

xiv * Contents

ALEXANDER PETRUNKEVITCH The Spider and the Wasp PLATO The Allegory of the Cave KATHERINE ANNE PORTER The Necessary Enemy

581 587

593

ANNA QUINDLEN Between the Sexes, A Great Divide 599 RICHARD RODRIGUEZ Heading into Darkness Once Again 603 SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS Under the Influence

607

CHIEF SEATTLE Speech on the Signing of the Treaty of Port Elliott

621

RICHARD SELZER The Masked Marvel’s Last Toehold 625 LESLIE MARMON SILKO Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination 631 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions 640 BRENT STAPLES Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space 644 SHELBY STEELE On Being Black and Middle Class JONATHAN SWIFT A Modest Proposal AMY TAN Mother Tongue

649

662

671

DEBORAH TANNEN Different Words, Different Worlds LEWIS THOMAS The Corner of the Eye

695

678

Contents * xv

HENRY DAVID THOREAU Why I Went to the Woods

700

JAMES THURBER University Days 707 SOJOURNER TRUTH Aren’t I a Woman? 714 MARK TWAIN Reading the River 717 ALICE WALKER Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self 721 EUDORA WELTY from “Listening”

730

E.B. WHITE Once More to the Lake E.B. WHITE The Ring of Time TOM WOLFE Only One Life

738

745

754

GEOFFREY WOLFF The Duke of Deception

760

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT A Vindication of the Rights of Women VIRGINIA WOOLF The Death of the Moth

770

VIRGINIA WOOLF Professions for Women

774

RICHARD WRIGHT Writing and Reading 780 Credits Index

795 803

766