Famous American Essay Writers: from Early Days to Contemporary Essayists

Famous American Essay Writers: from Early Days to Contemporary Essayists

Early American and Colonial Period: to 1776

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A revolutionary spirit was in the air then. So, it is not surprising that this theme is perfectly displayed in all works of famous essay authors of that time. They wrote about laws they considered unjust, they described slavery and were against of it, they criticized authorities and their policy, they disagreed with aristocrats, and they warned what the circumstances of such a situation could be.

It was the period of colonial and revolutionary literature, and the greatest representatives of American essayists there were:

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and his work Of Youth and Age, Of Truth, Of Studies, Of Revenge, Of Parents and Children, Of Marriage and Single Life, Of Discourse
Samuel Sewall (1652 – 1730) and his work The Selling of Joseph (1700)
John Woolman (1720-1772) and his two essays Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes (1754 and 1762)

Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers: 1776-1820

The triumph of American independence influenced the moods and literature of those times. It was a period of early national literature, when essays by famous authors described antislavery, democratic sensibility, American exceptionalism, support of the Constitution, American generations, and relations between England and America.

Moreover, this is the time when essay writers pay publishers to see their works live. Writers perfectly know what hooks to use for their essays, and they have no doubts as for their works’ topicality, informational content, utility, and uniqueness. The best and well-known essayists of that period are:

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and his works Advice on the Choice of a Mistress, The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams, The Temple of Learning, The Whistle
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and his two works: Common Sense (1776), The American Crisis (1783)
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and his The Declaration of Independence
Washington Irving (1783-1859) and his The Mutability of Literature (1820)

Romantic Period : 1820–1860

This very period is called the American Renaissance, as it was inspired by the Romantic movement originated in Germany but spread to other European countries, such as England and France. The writing representatives here were both poets and essayists, as well as fiction authors, and their ideas centered around spirit, organic growth, inspiration, and the importance of art for society in general and individual in particular.

The major theme for every essayist of romantic age was self-development. A man should express himself and find ways for self-awareness and self-expression. The development of society is impossible to imagine without arts. Self and nature are one. Every essayist of romantic period found himself obligatory to describe similar moods in his works.

The names of famous essayists of that period are well-known today:

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Gifts, Self-Reliance, The Poet
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894): The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850): Papers on Literat