L2L Essays (ft. Carol Andrews)

Essays

An essay is “an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or personal point of view” (Merriam-Webster, 2019). With the growth of American newspapers and magazines in the twentieth century, essays became a popular and informative writing category. Essays may be profound, funny, emotional, nostalgic, or — for the best essayists — combinations of all of the above. Others such as Finley Peter Dunne used his character Mr. Dooley to examine current affairs in the 1900s, while Lewis Grizzard (Atlanta), Herb Caen (San Francisco), Studs Turkel (Chicago), and Jimmy Breslin (New York) wrote about their cities. E. B. White wrote about leaving the city. Magazines like The New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the weekend magazines for newspapers all provide forums for skilled essayists. This week, special guest Carol Andrews and P. T. Bridgeport sample essays that exemplify the best of the American writer.