A monthly column featuring the literary form of the personal essay that was popular in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. My goal here is to provide general interest essays that are thoughtful, interesting and well written. My hope (someday) is to share the company of those grand masters of the form: Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Henry david Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Norman Maclean, and Annie Dillard.