The Ten Best American Essays Since 1950, According to Robert Atwan

  • James Baldwin, “Notes of a Native Son,” 1955 (Read it here.)
  • Norman Mailer, “The White Negro,” 1957 (Read it here.)
  • Susan Sontag, “Notes on ‘Camp,’” 1964 (Read it here.)
  • John McPhee, “The Search for Marvin Gardens,” 1972 (Read it here with a subscription.)
  • Joan Didion, “The White Album,” 1979
  • Annie Dillard, “Total Eclipse,” 1982
  • Phillip Lopate, “Against Joie de Vivre,” 1986 (Read it here.)
  • Edward Hoagland, “Heaven and Nature,” 1988
  • Jo Ann Beard, “The Fourth State of Matter,” 1996 (Read it here.)
  • David Foster Wallace, “Consider the Lobster,” 2004 (Read it here in a version different from the one published in his 2005 book of the same name.)