I just started re-reading Essays of E.B.White. I couldn’t help but share his self-deprecating description of an essayist. His writings, in general, are amazing, but I am particularly inspired by his essays, as I have always aspired to write longer, and deeply reported essays.
The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who take bird walks enjoy theirs. Each new excursion of the essayist, each new “attempt,” differs from the last and takes him into a new country. This delights him. Only a person who is congenitally self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays.
E.B. White
July 25, 2020, San Francisco.