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Co-Editors Note: This is the first of what we hope to be an ongoing series of Readers and Book Lovers writing about their favorite authors. It is intended to be complementary to diaries dealing with particularly favored or interesting books, mysteries, SF stories or what you will; even really bad works which have something unique or humorous to say. And of course any themes in the diaries allowing us to further our nefarious Kossack plot of polluting the precious bodily fluids of America is appreciated
For the inaugural edition of this series I propose to write about a writer who I think has been particularly influential to me as well as to the authorial craft and Western Literature. He is credited with pretty much inventing the form of the personal essay (the term derives from the French word meaning 'to attempt') and wrote very much in the spirit of the enlightenment, which, as a country we seem to be in need of reminding about. Particularly given the political currents swirling around us today; it is my deeply held conviction that enlightened thinking is not necessarily a permanent part of society.
And, I have always felt the spirit of DK - the Orange enlightener - very much derives from the creativity and intelligence of the individual diarists who for the most part can write about any damn thing they feel like. Yes, DK is a progressive site, as befits those of intelligence and creativity - reality often has a liberal bias - but even more so is the subjectivity and often laudable 'me'-ness of the contributors who can go beyond the usual diet of claptrap found in most political blogs. Often it is this subjectivity that is enlightening. So let's jump below the arabesque to explore the works of an author who, in a way, deserves to be an honorary 16th century Kossack
