Michel de Montaigne

Perhaps the greatest essayist in Western literary tradition, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was born to a wealthy French merchant family, which educated him in Latin and Greek. He served as a soldier, lawyer, and diplomat before a two-year period when he lost his father, brother, best friend, and oldest son, as well as being denied a post in a high French court. He retired from public life at age 38 to manage his family estate and write obsessively about numerous subjects in an inquisitive style that today would be called “stream-of-consciousness,” referring to both classical learning and his personal experiences.