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The essay was a favourite form of the man of letters, allowing a display of understated reading and culture. In recent years it has also been used with greater acuity, and more definite political intent.

A representative list of famous essayists:

• Matthew Arnold
• Francis Bacon
• Hilaire Belloc
• William Cobbett
• Thomas de Quincey
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• William Hazlitt
• Hugh Hood
• Leigh Hunt
• Samuel Johnson
• Charles LambCharles Lamb ( 1775- 27 July, 1834) was an English essayist, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare which he produced along with his sister, Mary Lamb. Charles Lamb was the youngest child of John Lamb, a lawye
• Michel de MontaigneMichel Eyquem de Montaigne ( February 28, 1533 September 13, 1592) was an influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay. In his main work, the Essais unprecedented in its candidness and personal flavo
• Joyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American novelist known for being nearly as prolific as contemporary novelist Stephen King. She teaches in the English department at Princeton University. Oates has written several books, mostly mystery novels,
• Katherine Ann Porter
• Bertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell ( May 18, 1872 February 2, 1970) was one of the most influential mathematicians, philosophers and logicians working (mostly) in the 20th century, an important political liberal, activist and a populariser
• John Ralston SaulHis Excellency John Ralston Saul (born June 19, 1947) is a Canadian author, essayist and philosopher. He is the husband and Vice Regal Consort to Canada's Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. Born in Ottawa, Saul studied at McGill University in Montreal an
• Susan SontagSusan Sontag (born January 28, 1933) is a well-known American essayist and novelist. Sontag was in born in New York City, grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and attended high school in Los Angeles. She received her B. from the College of the University of Chicag
• Lytton StracheyGiles Lytton Strachey ( March 1 1880 January 21 1932) was a British writer, best known as a biographer. Life Strachey was born in London, the son of Sir Richard Strachey, an engineer. From 1899 to 1905, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, having pre
• VoltaireFrancois-Marie Arouet ( November 21, 1694— May 30, 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher. Biography Voltaire was born in Paris to Francois Arouet and Marie-Marguerite Daumart or D'Aumard.
• Rebecca West
• E. B. White
• Virginia Woolf