Front cover image for Selected writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Selected writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author), Robert D. Habich (Editor)
"Essayist, lecturer, poet, and America's first "public intellectual," Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) is the central figure in nineteenth-century American letters and the leader (albeit reluctantly) of the Transcendental group. A literary mover and shaker, his unpopular early radicalism was directed toward social institutions (the church, education, literary conventions); by his death in 1882, however, his reputation was already solidifying as a national icon. Somewhere between the iconic sage and the speculative idealist lies an Emerson students don't often encounter, a flesh-and-blood figure whose writings testified to his continuing exploration of the individual's place in an increasingly conformist and crowded world. In its selections and its apparatus, this Broadview edition bridges the gap between Emerson and students by stressing his real-world engagements. The collection contains a range of prose and poetry representing some of Emerson's central concerns--nature, and the self; poetry and the artist; religion and social reform. Historical appendices include materials on Transcendentalism, the contemporary debate, in which Emerson participated, about the validity of Biblical miracles, and other authors' responses to Emerson."-- Provided by publisher
Print Book, English, 2018
Broadview Press, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, 2018
Criticism, interpretation, etc
407 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
9781554812691, 1554812690
989795652
Selected ProseNature (1836) Phi Beta Kappa Address (“The American Scholar,” 1837) Divinity School Address (1838) From “Thoughts on Modern Literature” (Dial, October 1840) “Circles” (1841, Essays: First Series) “Self-Reliance” (1841, Essays: First Series) “Experience” (1844, Essays: Second Series) “The Poet” (1844, Essays: Second Series) “The Uses of Great Men” (1850, Representative Men) From Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1852) “Land” (1856, English Traits) “Illusions” (Atlantic Monthly, November 1857) “Fate” (1860, Conduct of Life) “Old Age” (Atlantic Monthly, January 1862)“Thoreau” (Atlantic Monthly, August 1862) From “Immortality” (1876, Letters and Social Aims)Selected Poetry“Concord Hymn” (1837)“Each and All” (1839)“The Rhodora” (1839)“Ode, Inscribed to W. H. Channing” (1841) “The Apology” (1845)“Hamatreya” (1847) “The Snow-Storm” (1847)“Threnody” (1847)“Brahma” (1857) “Days” (1867)“Terminus” (1867)Appendix A: TranscendentalismFrom Sampson Reed, Observations on the Growth of the Mind (1828, 1838)From William Ellery Channing, “Likeness to God” (1828)Margaret Fuller, Transcendentalism Defined (letter to Caroline Sturgis, 1837)From Francis Bowen, review of Nature (1837)From William Henry Channing, Transcendentalism (1852)From Louisa May Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats” (1873)From Caroline Healey Dall, Transcendentalism in New England: A Lecture (1895)Appendix B: The Miracles ControversyFrom Orestes Augustus Brownson, New Views of Christianity, Society, and the Church (1836)From Andrews Norton, “The New School in Literature and Religion” (1838)From James Freeman Clarke, “R.W. Emerson, and the New School” (1838)From Andrews Norton, A Discourse on the Latest Form of Infidelity (1839)From George Ripley, “The Latest Form of Infidelity” Examined (1839)From Andrews Norton, Remarks on a Pamphlet Entitled ""'The Latest Form of Infidelity' Examined” (1839)Appendix C: Contemporary Writers on EmersonFrom Edgar Allan Poe, “Ralph Waldo Emerson” ( 1842)From Margaret Fuller, “American Literature” (1846)From James Russell Lowell, A Fable for Critics (1848)From Walt Whitman, With Emerson in Boston (1882)From Matthew Arnold, “Emerson” (1885)Appendix D: Emerson in His TimeFrom Margaret Fuller, “Emerson’s Essays” (1844)From Henry James, Sr. Emerson (c. 1868, published 1904)From Anonymous, “Reminiscences,” New York Times (1882)From Louisa May Alcott, Recollection of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1889)From Nathan Haskell Dole, “Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson” (1899)From George Santayana, “Emerson” (1900)