Prose written to describe, argue, reflect on or report the actual world rather than to narrate invented events, spanning forms from the personal essay and memoir to travel writing, criticism, oratory and correspondence collected and read as literature. The genre's boundary with fiction is a matter of the writer's claim about the world rather than of style: nonfiction prose can be as formally inventive, as digressive or as image driven as any novel, and the epistolary form crosses the boundary in both directions, since a real letter collection and a novel written as invented letters share a form while making opposite claims about what actually happened.
Facts
Partially Attested
Place of OriginNo single point of origin across the many forms this genre gathers (essay, oratory, memoir, criticism and more); its most influential form, the essay, is credited to the Frenchman Michel de Montaigne, the first author to describe his own work as essays. 1 Nonfiction Prose gathers many distinct forms (essay, oratory, memoir, history, criticism) with no single shared point of origin; this fact names the origin of the essay, its most influential constituent form, rather than the genre as a whole. Notable ExampleMichel de Montaigne, Essais (1580), the first work to describe itself as essays 1 Defining TraitWriting that attempts, in good faith, to convey information about the real world rather than being grounded in imagination. 2 Nonfiction Prose
Filter Results11 entries
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Encompasses Form
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Haibun, Forms Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Features Author
Source Ninety-nine Novels (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Oku no Hosomichi
Source Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841)Thomas Carlyle
Source Bronson Alcott (Wikipedia)
Source Out of Africa (Wikipedia)
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Biographia Literaria already in-genre Nonfiction Prose; Coleridge himself carried no in-genre edge to it.
Source Wikipedia: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Source Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (Wikipedia)
Source Simone de Beauvoir (Britannica)
Source Wikipedia: Susan Sontag
Source Wikipedia: T. S. Eliot
Source Wikipedia: Tayeb Salih
Source Wikipedia: The Book of Tea
Source The Fire Next Time (Wikipedia)
Source Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History (1837)Thomas Carlyle
Source Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Source Wikipedia: The Pillow Book
Source The Prince (Wikipedia)
Source Jean-Paul Sartre, The Words (1963)
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Wikipedia: Thomas Mann
Source Wikipedia: Ursula K. Le Guin
Source Wikipedia: Victor Hugo
Source Wikipedia: Walt Whitman
Source Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Yoshida Kenkō
Showing 51 to 82 of 82 in Features Author, page 2 of 2.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Essay
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays
Definitions section
The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as "attempts" to put his thoughts into writing.
In Group: Creative and Narrative Nonfiction, Lead
a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument
View the Source 2. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.s.v. Nonfiction
Any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination.
- Encompasses Form: The Essay, s.v. Essay
- Encompasses Form: The Epistolary Form, s.v. Epistolary Novel
- Features Author: Biographia Literaria
- Features Author: Thomas Carlyle
- Encompasses Form: Fu (Chinese Rhapsody)
- Encompasses Form: The Parable
View the Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
W. W. Norton & CompanyNonfiction Prose entry
Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History (1837)
Thomas Carlyle, 1837Features Author: The French Revolution: A History
Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841)
Thomas Carlyle, 1841Features Author: On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History
Simone de Beauvoir (Britannica)
Features Author: Simone de Beauvoir
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Words (1963)
Features Author: The Words
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Features Author: The Myth of Sisyphus
Jean-Paul Sartre (Britannica)
BritannicaFeatures Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
Albert Camus (Britannica)
BritannicaFeatures Author: Albert Camus
Andre Breton (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Andre Breton, Opening paragraph, Surrealist ManifestoQuote, Features Author: Andre Breton, Opening paragraph, Surrealist Manifesto
His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surrealisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".
View the Source Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Futurism section, Futurist ManifestoQuote, Features Author: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Futurism section, Futurist Manifesto
Marinetti is known best as the author of the Futurist Manifesto, which he wrote in 1909.
View the Source Wikipedia: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Opening section, major prose workQuote, Features Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Opening section, major prose work
Coleridge wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria.
View the Source Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Lead section, essay originQuote, Features Author: Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Lead section, essay origin
first published as an essay titled The Great Lawsuit in the Transcendentalist magazine The Dial in July 1843, then substantially expanded and republished in book form under its current title in 1845
View the Source The Prince (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Prince, Lead section, genreQuote, Features Author: The Prince, Lead section, genre
is a 16th-century political treatise written by the Italian diplomat and political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli
View the Source I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Lead section, genreQuote, Features Author: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Lead section, genre
is a 1969 autobiography describing the young and early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou
View the Source Out of Africa (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Out of Africa, Infobox, Genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Out of Africa, Infobox, Genre field
Memoir
View the Source The Fire Next Time (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Fire Next Time, Infobox, Genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Fire Next Time, Infobox, Genre field
Essays
View the Source Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (1836)
Features Author: Nature, Lead section, genreQuote, Features Author: Nature, Lead section, genre
Nature is a book-length essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published by James Munroe and Company in 1836.
Wikipedia: Oku no Hosomichi
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Oku no Hosomichi, Lead section, formQuote, Features Author: Oku no Hosomichi, Lead section, form
a prose and verse travel diary
View the Source Bronson Alcott (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Orphic Sayings, Transcendentalist section, genreQuote, Features Author: Orphic Sayings, Transcendentalist section, genre
Alcott also wrote a series patterned after the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe which was published in the Transcendentalists' journal, The Dial.
View the Source Walden (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Walden, Infobox, Genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Walden, Infobox, Genre field
Memoir
View the Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University PressEncompasses Form: Haibun
Wikipedia: The Pillow Book
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Pillow Book, LeadQuote, Features Author: The Pillow Book, Lead
is a book of observations and musings
View the Source Wikipedia: Tsurezuregusa
Features Author: Essays in Idleness, LeadQuote, Features Author: Essays in Idleness, Lead
a collection of essays written by the Japanese monk
View the Source Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, LeadQuote, Features Author: Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, Lead
is a nonfiction book by David Pringle
View the Source Wikipedia: Margaret Fuller
WikipediaFeatures Author: Margaret Fuller, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: Margaret Fuller, Lead paragraph
was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate
View the Source Wikipedia: Niccolo Machiavelli
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Niccolò Machiavelli, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: Niccolò Machiavelli, Lead paragraph
He is best known for his political treatise The Prince
View the Source Adam Mickiewicz (Wikipedia)
WikipediaFeatures Author: Adam Mickiewicz, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: Adam Mickiewicz, Lead paragraph
was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist
View the Source Alejo Carpentier (Wikipedia)
WikipediaFeatures Author: Alejo Carpentier, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: Alejo Carpentier, Lead paragraph
was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist
View the Source Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, Wikipedia
Features Author: Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Lead paragraph
was a Turkish poet, novelist, literary scholar and essayist
View the Source Ayi Kwei Armah, Wikipedia
Features Author: Ayi Kwei Armah, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: Ayi Kwei Armah, Lead paragraph
He is also an essayist, as well as having written poetry, short stories, and books for children.
View the Source Wikipedia: Marguerite Duras
Features Author: Marguerite Duras, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: Marguerite Duras, Lead paragraph
was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker
View the Source Wikipedia: Halldór Laxness
WikipediaFeatures Author: Halldór Laxness, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: Halldór Laxness, Lead paragraph
He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and short stories.
View the Source Wikipedia: Essais
Features Author: Essais, Infobox: genreQuote, Features Author: Essais, Infobox: genre
Essay
View the Source Wikipedia: A Confession (Tolstoy)
Features Author: A Confession, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: A Confession, Lead paragraph
is a short work on the subject of melancholia, philosophy and religion
View the Source Wikidata: Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Features Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Autobiography, belles-lettres, essays, children's literature
View the Source Wikipedia: Arundhati Roy
Features Author: Arundhati Roy, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Arundhati Roy, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Fiction, non-fiction
View the Source Wikipedia: Mary Gaitskill
Features Author: Mary Gaitskill, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Mary Gaitskill, Infobox, genre field
Genre: literary short story, novel, essay, Transgressive Fiction
View the Source Wikipedia: Tayeb Salih
Features Author: Tayeb Salih, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Tayeb Salih, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Novel, short story, essay
View the Source Wikipedia: Ursula K. Le Guin
Features Author: Ursula K. Le Guin, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Ursula K. Le Guin, Infobox, genre field
Genre:
View the Source Antje Ascheid (University of Georgia directory)
Features Author: Antje Ascheid, Faculty profileQuote, Features Author: Antje Ascheid, Faculty profile
Her first book, Hitler's Heroines: Stardom, Womanhood and the Popular in Nazi Cinema, was published with Temple University Press in 2003.
View the Source Mario Vargas Llosa (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Mario Vargas Llosa, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Mario Vargas Llosa, Lead section
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (28 March 1936-13 April 2025) was a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist, and politician.
View the Source Carlos Fuentes (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Carlos Fuentes, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Carlos Fuentes, Lead section
Carlos Fuentes Macías (; Spanish: [ˈkaɾlos ˈfwentes] ; November 11, 1928, May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist, essayist and ambassador to France.
View the Source Wikipedia: Haruki Murakami
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Haruki Murakami, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Haruki Murakami, Lead section
His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan.
View the Source Wikipedia: Lu Xun
Features Author: Lu Xun, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Lu Xun, Lead section
A leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in both vernacular and literary Chinese as a novelist, literary critic, essayist, poet, translator and political commentator, known for his sharp, satirical style and critical reflections on Chinese history and culture.
View the Source Wikipedia: A Room of One's Own
WikipediaFeatures Author: A Room of One's Own, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: A Room of One's Own, Lead section
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1929.
View the Source Wikipedia: In Praise of Shadows
WikipediaFeatures Author: In Praise of Shadows, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: In Praise of Shadows, Lead section
In Praise of Shadows (陰翳礼讃, In'ei Raisan) is an essay by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki about Japanese aesthetics.
View the Source Wikipedia: The Book of Tea
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Book of Tea, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: The Book of Tea, Lead section
The Book of Tea (茶の本, Cha no Hon) by Okakura Kakuzō is a long 1906 essay linking the role of chadō (teaism) to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and protesting Western caricatures of "the East".
View the Source Ninety-nine Novels (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Ninety-nine Novels, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Ninety-nine Novels, Lead section
Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939, A Personal Choice is an essay by British writer Anthony Burgess, published by Allison & Busby in 1984.
View the Source Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva, Lead section
Jensens "Gradiva") is an essay written in 1907 by Sigmund Freud that subjects the novel Gradiva: A Pompeiian Fancy by Wilhelm Jensen, and especially its protagonist, to psychoanalysis.
View the Source Wikipedia: Aldous Huxley
Features Author: Aldous Huxley, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Aldous Huxley, Lead section
His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives and poems.
View the Source Wikipedia: Arthur Miller
Features Author: Arthur Miller, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Arthur Miller, Lead section
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915, February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist in 20th-century American theater.
View the Source Wikipedia: J. M. Coetzee
Features Author: J. M. Coetzee, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: J. M. Coetzee, Lead section
John Maxwell Coetzee (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, and translator.
View the Source Wikipedia: Marguerite Yourcenar
Features Author: Marguerite Yourcenar, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Marguerite Yourcenar, Lead section
Marguerite Yourcenar (UK: , US: ; French: [maʁɡ(ə)ʁit juʁsənaʁ] ; born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour; 8 June 1903-17 December 1987) was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist who became a US citizen in 1947.
View the Source Wikipedia: Michel Houellebecq
Features Author: Michel Houellebecq, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Michel Houellebecq, Lead section
Michel Houellebecq (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl wɛlbɛk]; born Michel Thomas on 26 February 1956) is a French author of novels, poems, and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker, and singer.
View the Source Wikipedia: Susan Sontag
Features Author: Susan Sontag, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Susan Sontag, Lead section
She primarily wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp' ", in 1964.
View the Source Wikipedia: T. S. Eliot
Features Author: T. S. Eliot, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: T. S. Eliot, Lead section
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888-4 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.
View the Source Wikipedia: Leonardo Sciascia
Features Author: Leonardo Sciascia, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Leonardo Sciascia, Lead section
Leonardo Sciascia (Italian: [leoˈnardo ʃˈʃaʃʃa] ; 8 January 1921-20 November 1989) was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician.
View the Source Wikipedia: Michel de Montaigne
Features Author: Michel de Montaigne, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Michel de Montaigne, Lead section
Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous writers of Western literature; his Essais contain some of the most influential essays ever written.
View the Source Wikipedia: Henry David Thoreau
WikipediaFeatures Author: Henry David Thoreau, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Henry David Thoreau, Lead section
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817, May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher.
View the Source Wikipedia: Walt Whitman
WikipediaFeatures Author: Walt Whitman, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Walt Whitman, Lead section
Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819, March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels.
View the Source Wikipedia: Charles Baudelaire
WikipediaFeatures Author: Charles Baudelaire, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Charles Baudelaire, Lead section
Charles-Pierre Baudelaire (UK: ; US: ; French: [ʃaʁl(ə) bodlɛʁ] ; 9 April 1821-31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic.
View the Source Wikipedia: George Orwell
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: George Orwell, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: George Orwell, Lead section
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 - 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell.
View the Source Wikipedia: Mark Twain
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Mark Twain, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Mark Twain, Lead section
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist.
View the Source Wikipedia: Victor Hugo
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Victor Hugo, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Victor Hugo, Lead section
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (French: [viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo] ; 26 February 1802-22 May 1885) was a French Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.
View the Source Wikipedia: Marcel Proust
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Marcel Proust, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Marcel Proust, Lead section
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( PROOST; French: [maʁsɛl pʁust]; 10 July 1871-18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist best known for his novel À la recherche du temps perdu (translated into English as In Search of Lost Time, earlier Remembrance of Things Past), which was published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927 and totals around 1.25 million words.
View the Source Wikipedia: James Baldwin
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: James Baldwin, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: James Baldwin, Lead section
James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924, December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems.
View the Source Wikipedia: Jorge Luis Borges
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Jorge Luis Borges, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Jorge Luis Borges, Lead section
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges ( BOR-hess; Spanish: [ˈxoɾxe ˈlwis ˈboɾxes] ; 24 August 1899-14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature.
View the Source Wikipedia: Thomas Mann
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Thomas Mann, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Thomas Mann, Lead section
Paul Thomas Mann (6 June 1875-12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate.
View the Source Wikipedia: Cesare Pavese
Features Author: Cesare Pavese, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Cesare Pavese, Lead section
Cesare Pavese (UK: pav-AY-zay, -zee, Italian: [ˈtʃeːzare paˈveːze, ˈtʃɛː-, -eːse]; 9 September 1908-27 August 1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist.
View the Source Wikipedia: Yoshida Kenkō
Features Author: Yoshida Kenko, Lead sectionQuote, Features Author: Yoshida Kenko, Lead section
His most famous work is Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), one of the most studied works of medieval Japanese literature.
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