The Best American Essays of the Century (The Best American Series)

Excellent compilation and variety of essays. The best collection I have come by so far! From Stickeen by John Muir to Corn Pone Opinions by Mark Twain, this is an excellent selection.

These are remarkable essays -- from Jane Addams' insightful account of how the devil baby notion thrives among women whose hard lives make them seek some sense of justice or retribution to aching accounts of growing up black in racist America. And many more. They are great reading for the times when you only have a short time to read, and they engage you completely. And they stay with you. Bravo to the editors.

This book is even better than I expected. It’s thick!! I have ADHD/short attention span and was looking for meaningful reading without long commitment. Exactly what I wanted. Includes plenty of representation of women writers and a careful distribution over the entire century. Includes well-know authors, but essays you likely haven’t read before.

Oates is amazing so the essay selections were very thoroughly chosen and that can be seen. Some of the writers inside are well known, but some are not very popular and for good cause. A couple of the essays are plain dry, I know how to analyze literature so I know that sometimes a book can be boring but some of the essays were so boring that I had to take breaks. The self-reflections here and the stories for the most part are amazing but I would not go back for a re-read of the entire collection, only a select few. Sincerely, iSklcndykid

Remember, when you heard about that essay by Joan Didion and were like, "Man, I should totally look that up and read that." This is basically the complete works of all those essays you've ever heard of and authors you've been meaning to research and get-to-know. Essays like Illumination Rounds by Michael Herr, are good examples of the raw roughness of the sixties (Vietnam era) exuberance, and quickly moving to others like E.B. White who challenge us to use the calming whim of our senses to recall memories, make this collection an astounding preservation of great works of non-fiction, but also a preservation of history. Many of these accounts serve as windows into the worlds they come from, and in them we are able to experience both an emotional reflective charge, as well as, an expansive historical catalogue.

Needed this book for a college class and I love all the pieces that are in it. This book is full of American history. I think more people should read it!

I had to buy this for a college class and I didn’t obviously read every essay. But the ones we did have to read, some where just not what I thought would be the “best”. Understanding everyone’s taste in literature is different, I just think it’s interesting to see what’s their “best” ones.

I loved this book because it illustrated to me how much our society has and hasn't changed over the years. The writing was exquisite which was a pleasant respite from today's 24/7 verbal and informational assaults which are produced so quickley and usually without much pondering or maturing of themes and ideas. I see the essay as a slowly dying art form and I am just an average American who loves to read and think and write, I'm definitely not an academic predicting the end of civilization because of the pace of life and thinking brought about by technology.

Brauchte das Buch für die Uni und glücklicherweise war es schneller da als erwartet:) Manche Essays sind ganz interessant, andere schwer zu verstehen. Aber wer gerne englische Essays liest: nur zu;)

This is a really good collection of meaningful, deep essays of the century. You may argue if they really are the best, but they certainly are among the very best amongst american authors. Had to buy it for my university compositon/writing class, but it's totally worth it.