Spring 2026 OLLI Digital Catalog – under construction 

ON THE MODERN TRAIL OF MONTAIGNE’S ESSAY (H358)

H – Literature

All writers are often surprised by what they find when they write. Perhaps the essay, as modeled by Montaigne, is the most exploratory of the surprise answer for “What is?” — influential on later writers such as Shakespeare who couldn’t help but play-fully seek further “What is,” himself. The essay focuses on the investigation of the “I” such as in Montaigne’s statement, “If I speak of myself in different ways, it’s because I view myself differently.” We will read essays from The Best American Essays.

This offering meets for a total of 5 session(s).

INSTRUCTOR: Russ Endo

ENDO, RUSS — Trained in poetry with Etheridge Knight in the Free Peoples Poetry Workshop of Philadelphia (Etheridge called him Little Brother). His first poem, Susumu, My Name, became the basis of a jazz composition by Sumi Tonooka that appeared on PBS. (H358)

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