A New History of the Essay 4vd Books by John D’Agata Halls of Fame About a Mountain The Lifespan of a Fact A New History of the Essay: The Lost Origins of the Essay The Making of the American Essay The Next American Essay A New History 4vdof the Essay Edited and introduced by John D’Agata With a foreword by James Wood Graywolf Press Copyright © 2015 by John D’Agata Foreword © 2015 by James Wood “A Note about the Title” first appeared, in a different form, in Seneca Review. This publication is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appro- priation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and through a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota. Significant support has also been provided by Target, the McKnight Foundation, Amazon.com, and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. To these organizations and individuals we offer our heartfelt thanks. Published by Graywolf Press 250 Third Avenue North, Suite 600 Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401 All rights reserved. www.graywolfpress.org Published in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 First Graywolf Printing, 2015 Cover design: Christa Schoenbrodt My hope is that myth becomes subservient to my purposes, and eventually takes on the semblance of true events. But when it can’t, when it obstinately slights all attempts at credibility, my wish is for a sympathetic reader, someone who is willing to accept with indulgence the many varieties of our past. Plutarch rw The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past, just as it is bound to modify the future. Borges ghg An essay is a thing of the imagination. Ozick tit Contents Volume One 4 The Lost Origins of the Essay Volume Two g The Making of the American Essay Volume Three d The Next American Essay Foreword James Wood xxxi To the Reader 1 A Concordance of Modes, Forms, and Themes 7 Index of Essays 33 Index of Essayists 37 Acknowledgments 41 A Note about the Title 43 w Volume One r The Lost Origins of the Essay To the Reader 1 Prologue Ziusudra of Sumer The List of Ziusudra 7 w 1500 B.C.E. r Ennatum of Akkad Dialogue of Pessimism 9 w 500 B.C.E. r Heraclitus of Ephesus I Have Looked Diligently at My Own Mind 15 w 100 B.C.E. r Theophrastus of Eressos These Are Them 21 w 46 r Mestrius Plutarch Some Information about the Spartans 27 w 105 r Lucius Seneca Sick 33 w 315 r Azwinaki Tshipala Questions and Answers 37 w 427 r T’ao Ch’ien The Biography of Mr. Five-Willows 41 w 709 r Li Tsung-Yuan Is There a God? 45 w 858 r Li Shang-yin Miscellany 49 w 996 r Sei Shōnagon The Pillow Book 57 w 1281 r Yoshida Kenkō In all things I yearn for the past 91 w 1336 r Francesco Petrarch My Journey Up the Mountain 99 w 1499 r Bernardino de Sahagún Definitions of Earthly Things 107 w 1580 r Michel de Montaigne On Some Verses of Virgil 113 w 1623 r Francis Bacon Antitheses of Things 175 w 1658 r Thomas Browne Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial; or, A Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns Lately Found in Norfolk 185 w 1692 r Matsuo Bashō Narrow Road to the Interior 219 w 1729 r Jonathan Swift A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public 247 w 1763 r Christopher Smart My Cat Jeoffry 257 w 1790 r William Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 265 w 1849 r Thomas De Quincey The English Mail-Coach 287 w 1860 r Aloysius Bertrand Ondine 335 w 1869 r Charles Baudelaire Be Drunk 339 w 1873 r Arthur Rimbaud A Season in Hell 343 w 1896 r Stéphane Mallarmé A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance 367 w 1907 r Velimir Khlebnikov The I-Singer of Universong 391 w 1913 r Dino Campana The Night 401 w 1924 r Saint-John Perse Anabasis 413 w 1930 r Antonin Artaud Eighteen Seconds 423 w 1935 r Fernando Pessoa Metaphysics has always struck me as a prolonged form of latent insanity 429 w 1941 r Virginia Woolf The Death of the Moth 445 w 1945 r Paul Celan Conversation in the Mountains 451 w 1952 r Francis Ponge The Pebble 457 w 1955 r Edmond Jabès Dread of One Single End 467 w 1957 r Ana Hatherly Tisanes 475 w 1959 r Octavio Paz Before Sleep 481 w 1960 r Marguerite Yourcenar Fires 487 w 1962 r Jorge Luis Borges Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius 503 w 1965 r Julio Cortázar The Instruction Manual 519 w 1967 r Clarice Lispector The Egg and the Chicken 531 w 1968 r Michel Butor Egypt 543 w 1969 r Natalia Ginzburg He and I 587 w 1970 r Kamau Braithwaite Trench Town Rock 599 w 1971 r Peter Handke Suggestions for Running Amok 647 w 1972 r Marguerite Duras The Atlantic Man 653 w 1973 r Samuel Beckett Afar a Bird 663 w 1974 r Lisa Robertson Seven Walks 667 Epilogue John Berger What Reconciles Me 689 g Volume Two g The Making of the American Essay To the Reader 1 Prologue Anonymous Creation 7 g 1630 g Anne Bradstreet For My Dear Son Simon Bradstreet 9 g 1682 g Mary Rowlandson The Narrative of the Captivity 15 g 1741 g Jonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God 57 g 1782 g J. Hector St. John On Snakes; and On the Humming-Bird 77 g 1783 g Washington Irving A History of New York 87 g 1836 g Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature 127 g 1841 g Henry David Thoreau Walking 165 g 1851 g Herman Melville The Whiteness of the Whale 197 g 1854 g Edgar Allan Poe A Chapter on Autography 209 g 1858 g Emily Dickinson To Recipient Unknown 219 g 1865 g Walt Whitman The Weather—Does It Sympathize with These Times? 225 g 1874 g William Carlos Williams A Matisse 231 g 1882 g 237 g 1888 g T. S. Eliot The Dry Salvages 241 g 1903 g W. E. B. Du Bois Of the Coming of John 253 g 1909 g Mark Twain Letters from the Earth 269 g 1917 g Kenneth Goldsmith All the Numbers from Numbers 317 g 1921 g Jean Toomer Blood-Burning Moon 341 g 1924 g Gertrude Stein If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso 351 g 1927 g Laura Riding Jackson In a Café 357 g 1934 g Charles Reznikoff Testimony: The United States 361 g 1936 g F. Scott Fitzgerald The Crack-Up 413 g 1939 g James Agee Brooklyn Is 429 g 1940 g Walter Abish What Else 455 g 1941 g E. B. White Once More to the Lake 473 g 1950 g John Cage Lecture on Nothing 481 g 1955 g Leonard Michaels In the Fifties 501 g 1959 g Lillian Ross The Yellow Bus 509 g 1963 g Norman Mailer Ten Thousand Words a Minute 529 g 1963 g James Baldwin The Fight: Patterson vs. Liston 583 g 1964 g Tom Wolfe The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby 597 g 1965 g Gay Talese Frank Sinatra Has a Cold 625 g 1968 g William Gass In the Heart of the Heart of the Country 663 g 1969 g N. Scott Momaday The Way to Rainy Mountain 691 g 1970 g Joe Brainard I Remember 715 g 1971 g Donald Barthelme Sentence 745 g 1972 g Susan Steinberg Signified 753 g 1973 g Renata Adler Brownstone 759 g 1974 g Kathy Acker Humility 777 Epilogue Harryette Mullen Elliptical 795 u Volume Three o The Next American Essay To the Reader 3 Prologue Guy Davenport And 5 u 1975 o John McPhee The Search for Marvin Gardens 7 u 1976 o Barry Lopez The Raven 21 u 1977 o Susan Sontag Unguided Tour 27 u 1978 o Jamaica Kincaid Girl 41 u 1979 o Joan Didion The White Album 45 u 1980 o James Wright May Morning 75 u 1981 o Harry Mathews Country Cooking from Central France: Roast Boned Rolled Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb (Farce Double) 79 u 1982 o Annie Dillard Total Eclipse 95 u 1983 o David Antin The Theory and Practice of Postmodernism: A Manifesto 111 u 1984 o Eliot Weinberger The Dream of India 123 u 1985 o Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Erato Love Poetry 137 u 1986 o Dennis Silk The Marionette Theatre 167 u 1987 o Anne Carson Kinds of Water 181 u 1988 o Fabio Morabito Oil 219 u 1989 o George W. S. Trow Needs 225 u 1990 o Susan Mitchell Notes Toward a History of Scaffolding 231 u 1991 o Albert Goldbarth Delft 251 u 1992 o Paul Metcalf “. and nobody objected” 279 u October 1992 o Sherman Alexie Captivity 293 u 1993 o Susan Griffin Red Shoes 301 u 1994 o Alexander Theroux Black 317 u 1995 o Lydia Davis Foucault and Pencil 333 u 1996 o David Shields Life Story 337 u 1997 o David Foster Wallace Ticket to the Fair 343 u 1998 o Wayne Koestenbaum Darling’s Prick 383 u 1999 o Carole Maso The Intercession of the Saints 391 u 2000 o Mary Ruefle Monument 407 u 2001 o Thalia Field A ∴ I 411 u 2002 o Brian Lennon Sleep 425 u 2003 o Jenny Boully The Body 435 Epilogue Joe Wenderoth Things To Do Today 467 James Wood 4vdForeword In his uncontainable book, Out of Sheer Rage—a long essay about, around, and through D.