Essayist, lecturer, poet, and America’s first “public intellectual,” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) is the central figure in nineteenth-century American letters and the leader (albeit reluctantly) of the Transcendental group. A literary mover and shaker, Emerson directed his unpopular early radicalism 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 that students don’t often encounter, a flesh-and-blood figure whose writings testify 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 addressing some of Emerson’s major concerns—nature and the self, imagination and the poet, religion and social reform—as he explores the enduring question “How shall I live?” Historical appendices include primary materials on Transcendentalism; the contemporary debate about the nature of biblical miracles; other authors’ responses to Emerson as a writer and thinker; and the development of his complex reputation as a representative American. Copy-texts in this edition are the first published versions of each text, restored here as Emerson’s initial audience would have read them.

Collects Emerson's well-known speeches, essays, and poetry that expressed the scholar's philosophy in transcendentalism and defined the American identity.

This edition gathers all the major works of Emerson, whose inspiring, exuberant philosophical voice defined the American grain.

Books about The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books about The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books about The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books about Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson’s enduring reputation, however, is as a philosopher, an aphoristic writer (like Friedrich Nietzsche) and a quintessentially American thinker whose championing of the American Transcendental movement and influence on Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, William James, and others would alone secure him a prominent place in American cultural history. Emerson is often characterized as an idealist philosopher and indeed used the term himself of his philosophy, explaining it simply as a recognition that plan always precedes action. History Self-Reliance Compensation Spiritual Laws Love Friendship Prudence Heroism The Over-Soul Circles Intellect Art Nature American Scholar

Books about Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

A collection of the writings of this native-born American philosopher and poet, featuring such works as "Nature," "Self-Reliance," "The Over-Soul," "Cherokee Letter, and "Pray Without Ceasing"

This major new volume offers a wide selection of works from Emerson's lectures and essays, including some that have seldom been reprinted such as "Quotation and Originality." In addition, leading Emerson critic Richard Poirier provides helpful annotations to a generous selection of poems, making this the most accessible edition of Emerson currently available.

Books about The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed., with a Biographical Introd., by B. Atkinson. Forew. by T. McDowell