In anticipation of the Best American Essays 2014, which will come out later this week from Houghton Mifflin, the New Yorker brings us an adaptation of John Jeremiah Sullivan’s introduction to the anthology—a historical investigation of the word “essay.” Sullivan goes beyond the well-worn territory of debating the connotations Montaigne intended for his “Essais,” exploring the literary legacy of King James and the cultural reach of dramatist Ben Jonson.
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