Exploring the work of two very different essay writers for the #1949Club #blackhistorymonth

One of my aims with our reading clubs is always to try to get in as many different kinds of writing as I can; in some of our years, it would be so easy to just read e.g. Golden Age Crime all week, but I do like to stretch myself if I can! Mention on another blog (I can’t recall which) of the author James Baldwin reminded me that as well as fiction, he had also written essays (I read some of these as part of my Penguin Moderns reading project). And another blogger nudged my memory with respect to George Orwell; although that great writer sadly died in 1949, he was writing up until the very end and there are a number of essays which he published during the year. Cue a little bit of digging online and in the stacks, and so here are some thoughts on essay writing in 1949! “Equal in Paris” by James Baldwin comes from his collection “Notes of a Native Son” and it’s a long-form, thought-provoking work in which the author reflects on an experience from his time in the City of Light. I believe…