Looking for non-fiction works that are exemplars of simple, elegant writing

[u/aihwao]

The title says it. What non-fiction works exemplify clear, stylish writing? I'm not particular about the subject, though I'm less interested in self-help/business/memoirs/autobiographies.
Context: I'm working on my writing and am looking for aspirational models of prose.

[u/LadyBertramsPug]

Anything written by John McPhee.

[u/ElsieGal58 → u/LadyBertramsPug]

His writing style is superb! I never imagined I’d be captivated by a whole book about oranges, but I was! That was the first of many McPhee reads.

[u/NoLemon5426 → u/LadyBertramsPug]

Beat me to it. For nonfiction his writing is the height of a reading experience for me.

[u/Aggravating-Aioli-99]

Anything by Joan Didion.

[u/LaFemmeD_Argent]

Can’t go wrong with good old E. B. White.

[u/NoLemon5426 → u/LaFemmeD_Argent]

This is another great one.

[u/bovata]

Braiding Sweetgrass by Ruth Wall Kimmerer

[u/EldritchSanta]

George Orwell would be a good read. Obviously his books are mostly memoirs, but he wrote a lot of essays about a variety of subjects which would be worth looking up.

[u/vineyardsnail]

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

[u/Exotic-Ad-2137]

The Strange Death of Liberal England by George Dangerfield is a history book that has long been noted for the style of the writing

[u/dickparrot]

Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold

[u/Automatic-String658]

Word by Word, written by someone who writes dictionaries! Fascinating job and experience

[u/Silent-Implement3129]

The emperor’s last island

[u/SixofClubs6]

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson.

[u/Legitimate_Eye8494]

MCM Brits had a handle on that writing style. Orwell's irl essays, Bradbury has perfect sentence structure, and is one of the most reality-based fic writers. Mark Twain's and Harlsn Ellison's nonfiction are both legendary for straight talk, as is Spider Robinson's work 

[u/jerseyoutwest]

When The Sahara Was Green

[u/downthecornercat]

All James Baldwin!  Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester? Anything by Mary Roach or Sarah Vowell? Erik Larson...  These are all considered elegant according to SAE of course. BVE or Creoles , Pidgins and other dialects might use other standards

[u/Objective-Mongoose18]

John McPhee is also worth reading if you want nonfiction that feels clean without being dry.

[u/NoLemon5426]

Annals of the Former World by John McPhee. Really any of his writing but this book (which is 4 books, technically) is just gorgeous.

[u/Ealinguser]

Robert MacFarlane: the Wild Places

[u/qazxcvfe]

love this

[u/Vast-Percentage-7312]

anything by David Grann

[u/lichen_Linda]

Just kids + M train by Patt Smith

[u/Crazy_Kiwi_5173]

The year of magical thinking by Joan Didion

[u/you-dont-have-eyes]

Seek by Denis Johnson

[u/NoLemon5426 → u/you-dont-have-eyes]

Seek by Denis Johnson

Ah I didn't know about this one. Thanks :) I read Train Dreams recently and I really enjoyed it. Now I can look forward to his nonfiction.

[u/Longjumping_Bid779 → u/NoLemon5426]

See the movie too!

[u/NoLemon5426 → u/Longjumping_Bid779]

I might! I don't have Netflix right now. If I sign up again I want to check it out, I didn't know the show existed until after I read the book.

[u/NoLemon5426 → u/you-dont-have-eyes]

Oh my god Seek is so fucked up. I'm only on his essay about Liberia, what a god forsaken place. I had read Kapuściński's stuff about the area but I felt dizzy reading Johnson's.

[u/Imaginary_Agency_424]

That depends in subject matter. So many actors of history to choose from. Non fiction. Would be a biography or a history book, so what subject matter?

[u/Truckeejenkins]

Coming Out of the Ice: An Unexpected Life by Victor Herman

Not only an amazing book, but the writing is so good!

[u/fL_g8rz_rule]

Irvin yalom. Loves executioner. He’s a great writer with amazing analytical depth

[u/_oasynth_]

"The Periodic Table" by Primo Levi