Author&Teacher: Thomas Jerome Baker

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For more than four hundred years, the personal essay has been one of the richest and most vibrant of all literary forms.Distinguished from the detached formal essay by its friendly, conversational tone, its loose structure, and its drive toward candor and self-disclosure, the personal essay seizes on the minutiae of daily life-vanities, fashions, foibles, oddballs, seasonal rituals, love and disappointment, the pleasures of solitude, reading, taking a walk — to offer insight into the human condition and the great social and political issues of the day. “Most Studious” is a celebration of this genre: the personal essay.