The Cambridge History of the American Essay

by Christy Wampole (Editor), Jason Childs (Editor)

From the country's beginning, essayists in the United States have used their prose to articulate the many ways their individuality has been shaped by the politics, social life, and culture of this place. The Cambridge History of the American Essay offers the fullest account to date of this diverse and complex history. From Puritan writings to essays by Indigenous authors, from Transcendentalist and Pragmatist texts to Harlem Renaissance essays, from New Criticism to New The story of the American essay is told here, beginning in the early eighteenth century and ending with the vibrant, heterogeneous scene of contemporary essayistic writing. The essay in the US has taken many nature writing, travel writing, the genteel tradition, literary criticism, hybrid genres such as the essay film and the photo essay. Across genres and identities, this volume offers a stirring account of American essayism into the twenty-first century.

850 pages, Hardcover

Published December 14, 2023

About the author

Christy Wampole is an assistant professor of French literature at Princeton University. In 2011, she obtained her Ph.D. in the Department of French and Italian at Stanford University. She is interested in the essay form and all its possibilities.