Who wrote the finest NON-fiction English prose?

[WICKES]

I am not talking about the profundity of their insights or how original they were, simply the quality of their writing/ prose. I'd put C S Lewis forward as a candidate (though I have no interest in his Christianity) along with Aldous Huxley (especially The Doors Of Perception and his essays). If you could write non-fiction prose like anyone who would it be?

[Evaril]

Probably Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

[kelby_lake]

Antonin Artaud's theatre writings were wonderfully written. You can definitely sense the influence of mental illness and heroin.

[aliengirl]

Francis Bacon's Essays

[minstrelbard]

Joan Didion is an outstanding stylist in the essay form. Also, Christopher Hitchens, whose positions can sometimes be infuriating, can definitely write his way out of a paper bag. John McPhee is good, too. Ernest Hemingway wrote some nonfiction (A Moveable Feast, Green Hills of Africa, etc.), and John Steinbeck did as well.

I'm also fond of the prose of Col. Jim Corbett. He was a British officer in India early in the 20th century who had a reputation as a hunter of man-eating leopards and tigers. He wrote about his adventures in several books, and I find them extraordinarily readable. For a man who wasn't a professional writer, his prose was excellent.

[ktm5124]

I just saw the movie Capote starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and now I'm intrigued by the book In Cold Blood. The movie represented the work as revolutionary, and I've heard good things about it, so it seems to be a candidate for this thread.

By the way, the movie was excellent, and Hoffman was phenomenal. (Though sorry for being off-topic...)

[dfloyd]

the Essays of Emerson, any of the works of Thoreau, Winston Churchill's History of the Englis Speaking People.

[dfloyd]

Try watching the movie made of In Cold Blood. Robert Blake played one of the killers who was hanged for the murder of the Kansas family. It is a paradox that a few months ago Robert Blake, in real life, was tried for the murder of his wife. Fortunately for him he was found not guilty.

The book In Cold Blood was interesting, but the straight forward style of Capote is more like an impartial essay. It is not great prose writing. Unfortunately for Capote, the revenues gleaned from the success of his book led him into a lifestyle of drink and drugs from which he eventually died. He never wrote another word after his true to life story of the murder of an entire family.

Did you notice that one of the murderers, minus his English accent, was Daniel Craig, the newest James Bond.

[sixsmith]

I'll second Emerson.

[_Shannon_]

I just saw the movie Capote starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and now I'm intrigued by the book In Cold Blood. The movie represented the work as revolutionary, and I've heard good things about it, so it seems to be a candidate for this thread.

By the way, the movie was excellent, and Hoffman was phenomenal. (Though sorry for being off-topic...)

In Cold Blood is amazing...and it was definitely a game changing book. I seriously love the movie Capote..lol! I've watched it like 5 times.


Living writer-wise--I'd say Tracy kidder is the best I've read. His book Home Town is incredible. Also up there is Homer Hickham--who wrote the book Rocket Boys which the movie October Sky was based on (Rocket Boys is the first of The Coalwood Trilogy).

Michael Herr's Dispatches is an important non-fiction read I think.

Historically--I love me some Thucydides and some Plutarch.

[minstrelbard]

The book In Cold Blood was interesting, but the straight forward style of Capote is more like an impartial essay. It is not great prose writing. Unfortunately for Capote, the revenues gleaned from the success of his book led him into a lifestyle of drink and drugs from which he eventually died. He never wrote another word after his true to life story of the murder of an entire family.

This isn't true. He wrote and published a number of things after In Cold Blood. Drink and drugs reduced his production greatly, but he did write.

[stlukesguild]

Edward Gibbon- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
James Boswell- The Life of Samuel Johnson, Journals, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Sir Francis Bacon- Essays
Ralph Waldo Emerson- Essays
Robert Burton- The Anatomy of Melancholy
Izaak Walton- The Compleat Angler
Thomas de Quincey- Confessions of an English Opium Eater, On Murde as One of the Fine Arts, Suspiria de Profundis
Samuel Johnson- A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
Charles Lamb- Essays of Elia

Just a few thoughts...

[stlukesguild]

Historically--I love me some Thucydides and some Plutarch.

Umm... I don't think they were all that good at ENGLISH prose.:smilewinkgrin:

[_Shannon_]

This isn't true. He wrote and published a number of things after In Cold Blood. Drink and drugs reduced his production greatly, but he did write.

There is some suggestion (I don't know how accurate) that the writing of In Cold Blood left him sort of decimated. It left a deep scar on his psyche which was either the impetus for his demise, or at least hastened it. Which is a shame because he was an incredible author.

As an aside--another great movie based on his work is the film The Grass Harp. (And added for those who might not know--the character of Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird is based on Truman Capote)

[_Shannon_]

Historically--I love me some Thucydides and some Plutarch.

Umm... I don't think they were all that good at ENGLISH prose.:smilewinkgrin:

:blush5: Yeah--not so much...lol! :smilielol5:

[Aphra]

I like Huxley's early fiction but I think Doors of Perception is kind of terrible. Conversely, I don't care for much of George Orwell's "big novels" (1984, Animal Farm) but Down and Out in Paris and London and Homage to Catalonia are great to read and his criticism is really clear and incisive.

I'll second Francis Bacon and Charles Lamb/Elia as well. Also, Coleridge's essays are excellent. And I really love Thomas Browne but I'm not sure his style is as compelling as his thoughts. Oh, and Jonathan Swift.

[mal4mac]

Joseph Addison
Samuel Johnson
James Boswell
Charles Lamb
William Hazlitt
Thomas Carlyle
Ralph Waldo Emerson
John Stuart Mill
Henry David Thoreau
George Eliot
Matthew Arnold
T.H. Huxley
Samuel Butler
Mark Twain
Walter Pater
William James
Henry James
Oscar Wilde
G.B. Shaw
G.K. Chesterton
Virginia Woolf
James Stephens
Aldous Huxley
George Orwell
Joseph Epstein
Clive James

"The Oxford Book of the Essay" might be a good place to start!

See who *you* like. You might be disappointed with recommendations others are making (I didn't reckon much to Francis Bacon,and several other "noted" writers in the Oxford collection - but it didn't matter as I only had to suffer through a few essays...)

I would happily read more of any of the writers listed above, and have done so with several of them.

Samuel Johnson is truly great and Oxford Classics have a "reasonable" collection - only reasonable because it starts with his ropey poetry and early essays - but it really takes off with the later, great essays.

I haven't encountered any English non-fiction writing better than Seneca, Montaigne or Nietzsche - Screech's translation of Montaigne's essays is so good it makes me want to jump for joy every time I think about it.

[mal4mac]

I like Huxley's early fiction but I think Doors of Perception is kind of terrible. Conversely, I don't care for much of George Orwell's "big novels" (1984, Animal Farm) but Down and Out in Paris and London and Homage to Catalonia are great to read and his criticism is really clear and incisive.

If you think 1984 and Animal Farm are bad, try his other novels! (I actually think 1984 is quite good...) But I agree with your comments on his factual work, it's superb. I also prefer Huxley's early work - but I think his early essays are also good - much better than "Doors" - Just say no, folks :)

[stlukesguild]

Accck!! How did I forget Walter Pater??!:crazy:

[PrimordialBeast]

Emerson, Thoreau definitely... I'm not too educated in Non-fiction English prose but a few years ago I read a prose biography of the notorious mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski titled The Ice Man by Philip Carlo, it was just really intense, well written, couldn't put it down. Also Hunter S. Thompson if you want non-fiction/fiction all in one.

[WICKES]

Joseph Addison
Samuel Johnson
James Boswell
Charles Lamb
William Hazlitt
Thomas Carlyle
Ralph Waldo Emerson
John Stuart Mill
Henry David Thoreau
George Eliot
Matthew Arnold
T.H. Huxley
Samuel Butler
Mark Twain
Walter Pater
William James
Henry James
Oscar Wilde
G.B. Shaw
G.K. Chesterton
Virginia Woolf
James Stephens
Aldous Huxley
George Orwell
Joseph Epstein
Clive James

"The Oxford Book of the Essay" might be a good place to start!

Samuel Johnson is truly great and Oxford Classics have a "reasonable" collection - only reasonable because it starts with his ropey poetry and early essays - but it really takes off with the later, great essays.

Out of interest, who would YOU choose from that list as the greatest non-fiction prose writer? I mean simply for the quality of the writing?

[WICKES]

Edward Gibbon- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
James Boswell- The Life of Samuel Johnson, Journals, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Sir Francis Bacon- Essays
Ralph Waldo Emerson- Essays
Robert Burton- The Anatomy of Melancholy
Izaak Walton- The Compleat Angler
Thomas de Quincey- Confessions of an English Opium Eater, On Murde as One of the Fine Arts, Suspiria de Profundis
Samuel Johnson- A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
Charles Lamb- Essays of Elia

Just a few thoughts...

Good list- no William Hazlitt?

[Whifflingpin]

Not already mentioned - Joshua Slocum, Macaulay

[Janine]

There is some suggestion (I don't know how accurate) that the writing of In Cold Blood left him sort of decimated. It left a deep scar on his psyche which was either the impetus for his demise, or at least hastened it. Which is a shame because he was an incredible author.

As an aside--another great movie based on his work is the film The Grass Harp. (And added for those who might not know--the character of Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird is based on Truman Capote)

Hi Shannon, that is what I have read about Capote as well; he abandoned writing after "In Cold Blood" didn't he? I read the book back in high school and was immensely impressed. I saw the film once but thought it was good. I also saw another film based on Capote, which was admirable - different actor. I own the film "The Grass Harp" and we read that book several years back on this forum and discussed it after. Not sure how you would find the thread, but maybe a moderator could help. Interesting that you should mention the character in "To Kill a Mockingbird" being fashioned after Capote; but then again, the two authors were very close friends.


I think D.H. Lawrence wrote some of the most poetic prose of his time. Back then his books were so contraversial they were greatly overlooked but now he has gotten major recognition in recent years, even with scholar. Lawrence was good friends with many of the authors you have mentioned, Huxley probably being his most faithful friend up to his death.

[stlukesguild]

Good list- no William Hazlitt?

Or John Ruskin?:smile5:

[DanielBenoit]

Johnson and Emerson get my vote. I'm trying to think of some philosophers, but funny enough, a good deal of philosophers don't know how to write well. I suppose the history of philosophy is also divided between Plato and Aristotle in matters of good prose.

Just for the hell of it, I must mention Montaigne, who is IMHO the greatest French writer, fiction or non-fiction.

Twain of course is a lot of fun.

[minstrelbard]

Just to remind folks, the original question was regarding writers of English prose, not French, not ancient Greek, etc.

[DanielBenoit]

Just to remind folks, the original question was regarding writers of English prose, not French, not ancient Greek, etc.

I just mentioned Montaigne because it was better than starting a whole new thread on French non-fiction prose.

[Esoteric_Muse]

Hmmm...this is definitely a tough one.

I think I would go with G.K. Chesterton, Samuel Johnson, and Emerson. Emerson is simply a delight to read.

[stlukesguild]

I must mention Montaigne, who is IMHO the greatest French writer, fiction or non-fiction.

I might just agree... although a strong case might be made for Moliere, Victor Hugo, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Baudelaire, and certainly Proust.

[DanielBenoit]

I must mention Montaigne, who is IMHO the greatest French writer, fiction or non-fiction.

I might just agree... although a strong case might be made for Moliere, Victor Hugo, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Baudelaire, and certainly Proust.

Of course a case can be made for all of them (though I have a distaste for Hugo), French literature doesn't really seem to have an unquestionable 'Shakespeare' or 'Goethe'. Though Proust and Baudelaire (along with Montaigne) probably deserve to be considered amongst the best; the former for making amongst one of the two or three greatest novels of the twentieth century, and the latter for being a precursor to modernism. I unfortunately haven't read any Moliere, or Racine for that matter.

[mal4mac]

Out of interest, who would YOU choose from that list as the greatest non-fiction prose writer? I mean simply for the quality of the writing?

That's difficult! Using the 'warm glow of memory' selection procedure, I would pick:

*Samuel Johnson - later essays

Honorable mention to:

James Boswell - biography of the above
John Stuart Mill - autobiography
Henry David Thoreau - Walden
Walter Pater - get St. Luke's recommendations :)
Virginia Woolf - a room of one's own, various essays
*Aldous Huxley - any essays
*George Orwell - ditto
*Joseph Epstein - ditto
*Clive James - ditto

I missed out:

Gosse - "Father and Son"
*Harold Bloom - The Western Canon
*Gore Vidal - various essays (check out his Montaigne essay, easily to be found on the internet.)

* These authors write a lot about other writers, so they may help you directly with your quest - as well as, perhaps, being 'the greatest writer of English prose' themselves :)

[Sebas. Melmoth]

Robin Collingwood wrote a very nice English, as did J. B. Bury.