As observed in previous essay samplers (Part One, Part Two, and Part Three), reading the best writings of others can be an especially pleasurable way to improve our own writing.
This fourth collection of essays and articles includes classic pieces by George Orwell, E. B. White, and Virginia Woolf alongside a number of works by contemporary writers. Read--and enjoy.
- Inaugural Address, by John F. Kennedy (1961)
"I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world." - "Drugs: The Case for Legalizing Marijuana," by Gore Vidal* (The New York Times, September 26, 1970)
"It is possible to stop most drug addiction in the United States within a very short time. Simply make all drugs available and sell them at cost. Label each drug with a precise description of what effect--good and bad--the drug will have on whoever takes it. This will require heroic honesty."
* To access Vidal's essay, you must register with NYTimes.com. Registration is free.
- "Happiness," by Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco, 1965)
"Hungrily, avidly, I inhaled the fragrance of the steam rising from the pot. The meal must have been baked beans; the aroma was overwhelming. Once more I realized to what an extent earthly happiness is made to the measure of man. It is not a rare bird which we must pursue at one moment in heaven, at the next in our minds. Happiness is a domestic bird in our own courtyards."
- "Homeless," by Anna Quindlen (Newsweek, 1987)
"It has been customary to take people's pain and lessen our own participation in it by turning it into an issue, not a collection of human beings. We turn an adjective into a noun: the poor, not poor people; the homeless, not Ann or the man who lives in the box or the woman who sleeps on the subway grate."
- "In Defense of Talk Shows," by Barbara Ehrenreich (Time magazine, December 4, 1995)
"As anyone who actually watches them knows, the talk shows are one of the most excruciatingly moralistic forums the culture has to offer. Disturbing and sometimes disgusting, yes, but their very business is to preach the middle-class virtues of responsibility, reason and self-control."
- "The Kitchen," by Alfred Kazin (from A Walker in the City, 1951)
"All my memories of that kitchen are dominated by the nearness of my mother sitting all day long at her sewing machine, by the clacking of the treadle against the linoleum floor, by the patient twist of her right shoulder as she automatically pushed at the wheel with one hand or lifted the foot to free the needle where it had got stuck in a thick piece of material. The kitchen was her life. Year by year, as I began to take in her fantastic capacity for labor and her anxious zeal, I realized it was ourselves she kept stitched together."
Sentence Combining #5: "The Kitchen"
- "Politics and the English Language," by George Orwell (1946)
"A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible."
- "Portrait of a Londoner," by Virginia Woolf (1931)
"The village was London, and the gossip was about London life. But Mrs Crowe's great gift consisted in making the vast metropolis seem as small as a village with one church, one manor house and 25 cottages. She had first-hand information about every play, every picture show, every trial, every divorce case. She knew who was marrying, who was dying, who was in town and who was out."
- "The Ring of Time," by E.B. White (1956)
"Under the bright lights of the finished show, a performer need only reflect the electric candle power that is directed upon him; but in the dark and dirty old training rings and in the makeshift cages, whatever light is generated, whatever excitement, whatever beauty, must come from original sources—from internal fires of professional hunger and delight, from the exuberance and gravity of youth. It is the difference between planetary light and the combustion of stars."
Reading quiz on "The Ring of Time"
Rhetorical Analysis of "The Ring of Time"
Writers on Writing: E.B. White
- "Stone Soup," by Barbara Kingsolver (from High Tide In Tucson, published by HarperCollins, 1995)
"The sooner we can let go the fairy tale of families functioning perfectly in isolation, the better we might embrace the relief of community. Even the admirable parents who've stayed married through thick and thin are very likely, at present, to incorporate other adults into their families--household help and baby-sitters if they can afford them, or neighbors and grandparents if they can't."
- "The Story of an Eyewitness: The San Francisco Earthquake," by Jack London (1906)
"Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories and a fringe of dwelling-houses on its outskirts. Its industrial section is wiped out. Its business section is wiped out. Its social and residential section is wiped out."
Reading quiz on "The Story of an Eyewitness: The San Francisco Earthquake"
Sentence Combining #3: "The San Francisco Earthquake"
- "Watching Out for Loaded Words," by Frank Trippett (Time magazine, May 24, 1982)
"Via eye and ear, words beyond numbering zip into the mind and flash a dizzy variety of meaning into the mysterious circuits of knowing. A great many of them bring along not only their meanings but some extra freight--a load of judgment or bias that plays upon the emotions instead of lighting up the understanding."
ESSAY SAMPLERS: Models of Good Writing
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Five
