To Educate

While the stories in the book all have different topics, the author who has compiled the different essays has a purpose—to illuminate the art of the personal essay. The biography of the essay writers explains what it is about this writer that caused the inclusion of their work in the book and what significant change the writer wrought in the art of the personal essay. In the Introduction into the book there are several sections on different aspects that should be looked at when writing a personal essay. These subjects include honesty, privacy, confession, conversational element, quotations, questions and many other subjects.

The author uses each of these authors to show how the personal essay has been written in times past and the changes that have come about. It seems that this book is almost a personal essay in itself; the author also writes personal...