As the readers of this blog know, I discovered Anne Fadiman quite recently (and am reading Rereadings, edited by her) ; I like her writing and her recommendations. I now understand that a collection of her essays has recently been published; you can read an excerpt at the NPR site (a little bit of googling might also get you larger sections of the piece). The collection is one of familiar essays:
In the early 19th century, writers such as Lamb and William Hazlett wrote about themselves, but at the same time about a subject that they knew their readers knew, too. Among Lamb’s topics, for instance, were tailors, drunkards and annoying relatives.
“The hallmark of the familiar essay is that it is autobiographical, but also about the world,” Fadiman says.
Fadiman, who writes about everything from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to ice cream, shares her thoughts on why it was so enjoyable to pen a familiar essay about coffee, blogging as a literary genre and why many of her readers think of her as being a good friend.
I am looking forward to reading the book!
