Raewyn ConnellChinua Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child , New York, Knopf, 1999.
This unpromising title conceals a fine collection of essays by the great Nigerian novelist,
on writing, language, colonialism, and more. Another notable collection is Sara
Paretsky, Writing in an Age of Silence , London, Verso, 2007. Yes, the US thriller writer.
This has terrific essays on intellectual work and freedom under the War on Terror.
Among the hundreds of writers’ accounts of their writing, I particularly like BASHO
Matsuo, The Narrow Road to the Deep North , Penguin, 1966. Basho is one of the most
respected Japanese poets and this is a lovely account of his 1689 trip on foot through
the countryside, writing haiku poems and thinking about eternity as he went.
Portrait of Basho by Yosa Buson (Image:
Wikimedia Commons)Since I'm a sociologist, I'll also recommend
"On intellectual craftsmanship", the famous
appendix to the US sociologist C. Wright Mills'
book The Sociological Imagination (1959). It
has excellent low-tech advice, still relevant,
about research planning, good for all
disciplines. Mills himself was a notably clear,
pungent writer.
And two fascinating texts that I don't
recommend as advice, but can stimulate
thought about writing. Gertrude Stein, How to
Write (1931). Representative passage:
"Grammar in relation to a tree and two
horses." (Gertrude, why only two?) More
positively, James Joyce, Ulysses (1922). All
this book is amazing stuff, with spectacular
writing and great comedy. Look especially at
the "Oxen of the Sun" episode, set in a
maternity hospital, where Joyce parodies the
whole history of English prose.