Book Description

The journals from 1854 to 1861 show the ripeness of Emerson's thought overshadowed by the gravest problem of his time--slavery. In addition to completing English Traits (1856) and Conduct of Life (1860), Emerson wrote many of the lectures and articles that made up his next book, Society and Solitude. He also contributed often to The Atlantic Monthly after helping to found that magazine in 1857. Throughout these years he extended his strenuous trips as a lyceum lecturer, crossing and recrossing the frozen Mississippi several times each winter. In Concord, he continued his omnivorous reading, his beloved walks, and his friendships with Alcott, Channing, and Thoreau, but at home or away he saw America's future darkening daily. In 1856, Emerson wrote to his brother William, "But what times are these, & how they make our studies impertinent, & even ourselves the same! I am looking into the map to see where I shall go with my children when Boston & Massachusetts surrender to the slave-trade."

Influenced by events such as the murder of New England men in bloody Kansas and the assault on Charles Sumner in the U.S. Congress in 1856, by a growing friendship with Theodore Parker, and by John Brown's visits to Concord in 1857 and 1859, Emerson became one of the most notable speakers against slavery. He armed himself for his emergence from the study by marshalling his thoughts on liberty as he would have ranged his thoughts on any other topic. Notebook WO Liberty, rediscovered in the Library of Congress in 1964, collects his ideas on slavery and human liberty. Probably begun in 1854 it contains drafts or records of seven antislavery speeches, including his major antislavery address, "American Slavery," first given in January, 1855. These notebooks and journals bring the philosopher of "the infinitude of the private man" to January 1861 and the brink of war.

Book Description
This book presents the first comprehensive and authoritative collection of Emerson's writings against slavery and the subjugation of American Indians-writings that reveal Emerson's deep commitment to social reform. Included are speeches and lectures that have never before been published or collected in any other edition of Emerson's writings. ... Read more

Book Description
"A guided anthology that takes the reader through Emerson's own spiritual evolution."
—Robert D. Richardson, Jr., author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) is known best in the twenty-first century as a literary innovator and early architect of American intellectual culture, but his writings still offer spiritual sustenance to the thoughtful reader. The Spiritual Emerson, originally published on the two hundredth anniversary of the writer's birth, brings together the writings that articulate Emerson's spiritual vision and promise the greatest relevance to today's reader.

"It is a great service of this book that it traces [Emerson's] spiritual development . . . [It] is also valuable in establishing the full texture and subtlety of Emerson's much-misunderstood notion of self-reliance and nonconformity."
—Richard Higgins, Boston Globe

"This collection brings together for the first time Emerson's most important writings on spiritual themes, along with a discerning and eminently readable introduction by one of the foremost authorities on Emerson's religious thought."
—Lawrence Buell, Harvard University, author of Literary Transcendentalism and Emerson ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A New Light
David Robinson, once again, has shown through this superb selection of Emerson's essays the spiritual/religious underpinnings of America's premier Romantic. ... Read more

Book Description
Key writings by one of the most important social reformers of the nineteenth century that speak to our own turbulent times Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) never considered himself a political thinker. And yet he rose to prominence during one of the most turbulent times in U.S. history. As a result, political questions grew in importance for him, becoming by the 1860s one of his chief concerns as a public intellectual. In The Political Emerson, David M. Robinson has brought together for the first time the best of Emerson's numerous writings on politics and social reform. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Ralph Waldo Emerson was and is one of my heroes. I pray that readers will read his original ESSAYS and make their own judgments
Amazon.com requires a reviewer to write something more here. :-)

Thus, I would say again, "Read Mr. Emerson's thoughts in his original material."

Can you feel "the lift beneath your wings" from reading BRAHMA?

Can you better appreciate a friend when you read Emerson writing that, "A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."?

Emerosn essays are Food for the soul
Emerson essays are like the orphic and Eleusinian celetial odes that inspire and guide every awakened intellect. Similar to Plutarch essays which are divine physicians for the Soul.They never leave the reader where he found himself initially, The writtings uplift one to a higher Elysian sphere.
Dr Dimitri Karalis
Cape Town
South Africa

... Read more

Book Description
Nietzsche never traveled anywhere without his volume ofEmerson's essays; Matthew Arnold described Emerson as "the greatest prosewriter this century." Considered in his own time a profoundly radicalthinker, later reviewed as a bland Boston Brahmin, Emerson is a seminalAmerican writers, a truly celebratory and deeply adversarial thinker.This volume contains his Essays, First Series (1841), Second Series(1844), and a selection of poems including "The Problem," "TheSnow-Storm," and "Concord Hymn." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mighty thoughts that can shake your life!
This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. I know that many people don't like to read essays of any kind, but all I can say is that Ralph Waldo Emerson is simply different! Nobody has the gift to write essays and analyze life like him.

His words and ideas are so powerful and deep that we soon realize that they didn't come only from a brilliant mind, but also from a warm-hearted soul!

That's exactly what this book is about: Its sentences break through your brain and penetrate right into your soul! Emerson's optimistic view on human beings and life can only reinforce our courage in mankind and, especially, in ourselves!

What else can I say? His speech is direct, he defends all the good values, tell us to have confidence in ourselves and show us that passing through life with dignity is a matter of choice and courage, and that it simply doesn't change with time. It was like this a thousand years ago, it will probably follow the same rules a thousand years f! ! rom now.

This is the book I grab to comfort my spirit when I'm having difficult times... :) It is a guide that make us believe that anything is possible when we really want it! " Self-Reliance ", one of the essays inside this book, is a masterpiece in its own and I believe it should be studied in every high school, instead some of the crap we are usually obliged to read!

This book can shape your spirit and your mind. It is also possibly THE BEST self-help book you could ever own and, yet, a great literary work.

I would rate this book as ageless and I'm sure the future generations will be still interested in it, such as are we in those ancient Greek and Roman texts.

This is precious culture and food for your soul as a bargain! Do not waste more time. READ IT!!! ... Read more

Product Description
Biographical sketch of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 441 indexed pages. Dark red cover with gilt-lettering on front and spine. ... Read more

Book Description
Scholarship on Ralph Waldo Emerson has expanded considerably during the past decade. Since Emerson is the subject of historians, philosophers, and literary scholars, there is a need for an efficient and effective means to access information within an extraordinary range of critical approaches and perspectives. This bibliography lists and annotates writings about Emerson published in English between 1980 and 1991, and complements earlier Emerson bibliographies. Because the response to Emerson has evolved greatly over the years, the contents of this bibliography are arranged in chronological order. This arrangement allows the user to trace the progression of certain critical approaches to Emerson and to follow the development of critics who have made numerous contributions to Emerson scholarship. Each chapter is devoted to a particular year. Within each chapter, entries begin with book publications arranged alphabetically by author, followed by annual journals alphabetized by journal title and journal articles arranged by date of publication. A detailed index locates works by subject, author, and title. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Magnificent Fruit-bearing Tree of Emerson's Journals
I purchased this beautiful hardback set of Emerson's journals in late 2004. To date (October 2007) I have read through five volumes, making copious notes and marginal annotations. It is not an exaggeration for me to say that, outside Holy Scripture, this is the most impactful book or set of books I have ever read. Its effect upon me is incalculable. A lifelong reader of the Essays, I find that "History," "Self-reliance," "The Oversoul," and their fellows are simply the fruit of the magnificent fruit-bearing tree of Emerson's Journals.And the living, vascular, sap-carrying trunk and branches of that great tree provide more nourishment and light and insight than all of the Essays combined. The heart of the Essays consist in reworked excerpts from the Journals. The Journal is the great life-work of the man; whereas the Essays are merely the fruit.

Reading this book is a life-changing experience.

Some additional thoughts:

1.This set is obviously cheaper than the massive annotated Journal published by Harvard University. Perhaps a tenth of the cost. And, you get what you pay for. This is a reprint of the turn of the century edition. The binding is workmanlike. The cover illustrations leave something to be desired.

2. This edition contains footnotes noting correlary texts in the Essays. One annoying editorial practice, however, is to omit key quotations which Emerson co-opted wholesale into the Essays. I wish they had been left in their proper place to read, without opening another book. ... Read more

Book Description