... research. Jefferson invented a decoding device, a lap desk, and an improved type of moldboard plow. His collection of more than 6,400 books became a major part of the Library of Congress. Jefferson revised Virginia's laws and founded its state university. He developed the decimal system ... Christianity." He favored a new religion founded in nature and fulfilled by direct, mystical intuition of God, and opposed formal Christianity's emphasis on ritual. Emerson's next two books, Essays (1841 and 1844), contain much of his most enduring prose. In "Compensation," "Spiritual Laws," and "The ...

• Word Count: 3135
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... money to buy a one-way ticket to Paris. Baldwin published three collections of essays, which sold over a million copies each. It was the nonfiction books - Notes of a Nation Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), and The Fire Next Time (1963) - "that secured his reputation as an important American ... Baldwin for "his ability to make his readers feel intensely his! view of the damage that racial prejudice inflicts on both whites and blacks" (World Book Encyclopedia, pg. 31). Notes of a Native Son marked the formal entry of Baldwin into the literary tradition of the personal essay. The ...

• Word Count: 2618
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School