#40: The Mt. Rushmore Series

Which four essayists would you enshrine on Mt. Rushmore? For #40 in this long-running series, I've picked four who have had the most impact on me as a reader and thinker. My alphabetized monument has four contemporary writers, reflecting a modern bias - mea culpa.

1.) Christopher Hitchens: Though Hitchens took a right turn as he got older, his later conservative politics never interfered with my enjoyment of his writing. He was fierce, funny, and scary smart. My all time favorite book of essays - and my favorite Hitchens book - is his collection called "Arguably" (2011).

2.) Jonathan Lethem: Purely as an essayist, I've read the least of Lethem's work. But on the strength of "The Ecstasy Of Influence" (2011) alone, he overtook two of my earlier essayist/heroes - John Updike and Gore Vidal - to claim his spot on Mt. Rushmore.

3.) Anna Quindlen - Quindlen had me from hello. Ramming through "Thinking Out Loud" (1993), felt like having a conversation with my political soulmate. I've read all of her non-fiction since.

4.) David Foster Wallace - "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (1997) and "Consider The Lobster" (2006) are two of the funniest, most challenging and energizing books I've read in my entire life. I devoured the first, then raced to the library to borrow the other. Finishing them back-to-back felt like having a brain massage. I still mourn Wallace's suicide; he was one of a kind.

P.S. Hitchens is the only writer on my mountain not also a novelist. And though I have yet to complete a Wallace novel (I've started his magnum opus - "Infinite Jest" - at least three times), every novel I've read by Lethem and Quindlen is also worthy of any discerning reader's time.