PREFACE TO THE READER

English 244 is a course designed to be experiential as students encounter and grapple with the essay as a literary form worthy of academic attention. The title of the course is "The Art of the Essay," with the rather grand subtitle of "Writing that has changed minds and changed the world."

The course took us into the library for labs in which we examined old commonplace books, marveled at early magazine formats, and encountered famous essayists in their original contexts. Students' favorite library lab involved Sarah Almond's tour of the Bortz library rare books vault.

Throughout the semester, as we ranged in our readings from Seneca to visiting author Ross Gay, we kept our own commonplace books. We all had different approaches to writing in this physical space: alongside favorite quotations from assigned readings, some used it for analytical musings, some added lines from song and film, some tracked their job search or their workout schedule. And more than one of us found room for "shower thoughts"--perhaps a new genre in itself that could feed the modern essay.

Collected here is a partial record of our engagement with the essay form. The class chose from among many ideas for content, reluctantly leaving aside other possible sections for the sake of time. To paraphrase Montaigne, we are ourselves the matter of this book. We hope you enjoy it, but "you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and vain a subject."