The Encyclopedia of the Essay is the first reference work entirely devoted to the essay as a genre, reflecting the explosion of academic interest in this field. Coverage begins with Montaigne, the first essayist, and stretches forward to Addison and Steele, The Spectator and The Tatler , Marivaux, William Hazlitt, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Robert Musil, Theodor Adorno, Nouvelle Revue Fran?aise, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, and across the ocean to Emerson and Thoreau, E.B. White, The New Yorker and Harper's , James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, while also looking back to classical and medieval precursors.

Over 400 writers from around the world are included, along with geographical surveys providing historical frameworks, entries on kinds of essays, and entries on important single essays. Entries on closely related genres such as letters, journals, treatises, sermons, and reviews expand and explore the fluid boundaries of the essay.