The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Product Description
Product Description
The definitive collection of Emerson's major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life's work of a true American Scholar. As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual, emphasized independent thought, and prized the splendid labyrinth of one's own perceptions. More than any writer of his time, he forged a style distinct from his European predecessors and embodied and defined what it meant to be an American. Matthew Arnold called Emerson's essays the most important work done in prose. Since 1917 The Modern Library prides itself as The modern Library of the world s Best Books . Featuring introductions by leading writers, stunning translations, scholarly endnotes and reading group guides. Production values emphasize superior quality and readability. Competitive prices, coupled with exciting cover design make these an ideal gift to be cherished by the avid reader.
About the Author
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 1882) was a renowned lecturer and writer, whose ideas on philosophy, religion, and literature influenced many writers, including Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. After an undergraduate career at Harvard, he studied at Harvard Divinity School and became an ordained minister, continuing a long line of ministers in his family. He traveled widely and lectured, and became well known for his publications Essays and Nature. Mary Oliver is the author of eleven books of poetry, including American Primitive, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; New and Selected Poems, which won the National Book Award; and House of Light, which won the Christopher Award and the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you have only read William James, C S Pierce and later American philosophers and wonder what was there before then look no further.
Emerson is an absolutely key figure who helped forge an uniquely American philosophical disposition. With 'Nature', 'The American Scholar', 'The Divinity School Address' and 'Self-Reliance' Emerson marked his place in world culture and influenced generations of writers and thinkers. One of his early pupils, Thoreau, took Emersonian self-reliance to new heights in his 'Civil disobedience', a seminal essay which influence Gandhi and Martin Luther king.
Get this and enjoy....
Emerson is an absolutely key figure who helped forge an uniquely American philosophical disposition. With 'Nature', 'The American Scholar', 'The Divinity School Address' and 'Self-Reliance' Emerson marked his place in world culture and influenced generations of writers and thinkers. One of his early pupils, Thoreau, took Emersonian self-reliance to new heights in his 'Civil disobedience', a seminal essay which influence Gandhi and Martin Luther king.
Get this and enjoy....
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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23 reviews
222 of 238 people found the following review helpful
Waters that keep me afloat
4 Dec 2003
Format:Paperback
My daughter sent me one of these e-mail questionnaires intended to reveal your personality. One of the questions on it was, "What person, living or dead, would you give $10,000 to spend an hour with?" In that moment, I typed in "Ralph Waldo Emerson". He's not the only one, but I certainly would beg, borrow or steal $10,000 for an hour with him -- not Thoreau, not Whitman, not Schiller... but Emerson I would. And Goethe I would. Still my simple heart lies closer to Emerson than to Goethe.
30 years ago, when I entered high school, we studied the Transcendentalists in a basic lit class, and something about Emerson just glowed in my mind. The teacher told me that with time I'd get to know other authors better, and Emerson would take his place alongside a legion of others. But he was in a degree mistaken. Emerson never did diminish. I have never fallen out of love with him. And the relationship is a serious one. When the shadow of doubt creeps over me that my presence on this planet might be some kind of horrendous mistake, I still crack open a volume of Emerson. And he has never failed to recall me to myself.
30 years ago, when I entered high school, we studied the Transcendentalists in a basic lit class, and something about Emerson just glowed in my mind. The teacher told me that with time I'd get to know other authors better, and Emerson would take his place alongside a legion of others. But he was in a degree mistaken. Emerson never did diminish. I have never fallen out of love with him. And the relationship is a serious one. When the shadow of doubt creeps over me that my presence on this planet might be some kind of horrendous mistake, I still crack open a volume of Emerson. And he has never failed to recall me to myself.
43 of 43 people found the following review helpful
A Life Companion
28 Feb 2006
Format:Paperback
I think it is probably safe to assert that to read Emerson is to be forever indebted to him. His wording, his clearness of thought, his determination, his warmth... He has all the qualities one could ask for in a writer, and all one could ask for in a mentor. Nietzsche held Emerson's books the closest, and said they were above his praise; Borges added "Whitman and Poe have overshadowed Emerson's glory, as inventors, as founders of cults; line by line, they are inferior to him". James, the very Whitman, Proust, Frost, have all also praised him sincerely. Judging from other reviews, the love for Emerson hasn't diminished, more than a century after his passing.
For those who are not familiar with his works, it should be noted that Emerson is, without a doubt, a very unique writer. I was surprised when I realized that there is more poetry in his philosophy than in most verse books, yet he is always lucid; and that his poems, although hued by an impressive depth of thought, remain always passionate. He was renown as a brilliant lecturer, and his essays have all the force and simplicity of the oral form. Few people are so rich in memorable aphorisms, and one finds a treasure of a quote in every sentence: "A drop is a small ocean"; "We are not built like a ship to be tossed, but like a house to stand"; "Whoso be a man, must be a non conformist"; "Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the pleasure which concealed it"...
Those looking for a good introduction to Emerson can't do wrong buying this Modern Library Edition. In fact, those who are familiar with Emerson but are looking for an inexpensive paperback to carry around probably should pick this one up too. It includes all his major works; a very generous selection of his lesser writings; 23 poems, and a great introduction by Mary Oliver. I was a little puzzled when I saw that they included very little from Representative Men and kept English Traits in its entirety, instead of the other way round. It then occurred to me that in English Traits one gets a glimpse of the journal-writer, the philosopher, and the poet interwoven all in one. Those looking for a more complete, durable edition of Emerson's works should probably go with the Library of America ed. (2 volumes), or the very expensive and very thorough Centenary ed. (12 volumes!!). You can easily find all his oeuvre on the internet, though, so you don't need to buy book after book just to glean everything he wrote in his lifetime.
To put it simply, if you have any interest in philosophy, literature, poetry, religion, or life, read Emerson. You may not be convinced by his arguments, but there's no point in nodding your way through a book. What remains after you finish reading it is what counts, and few writers can be found whose works are as pervasive and fondly remembered as Emerson's are.
For those who are not familiar with his works, it should be noted that Emerson is, without a doubt, a very unique writer. I was surprised when I realized that there is more poetry in his philosophy than in most verse books, yet he is always lucid; and that his poems, although hued by an impressive depth of thought, remain always passionate. He was renown as a brilliant lecturer, and his essays have all the force and simplicity of the oral form. Few people are so rich in memorable aphorisms, and one finds a treasure of a quote in every sentence: "A drop is a small ocean"; "We are not built like a ship to be tossed, but like a house to stand"; "Whoso be a man, must be a non conformist"; "Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the pleasure which concealed it"...
Those looking for a good introduction to Emerson can't do wrong buying this Modern Library Edition. In fact, those who are familiar with Emerson but are looking for an inexpensive paperback to carry around probably should pick this one up too. It includes all his major works; a very generous selection of his lesser writings; 23 poems, and a great introduction by Mary Oliver. I was a little puzzled when I saw that they included very little from Representative Men and kept English Traits in its entirety, instead of the other way round. It then occurred to me that in English Traits one gets a glimpse of the journal-writer, the philosopher, and the poet interwoven all in one. Those looking for a more complete, durable edition of Emerson's works should probably go with the Library of America ed. (2 volumes), or the very expensive and very thorough Centenary ed. (12 volumes!!). You can easily find all his oeuvre on the internet, though, so you don't need to buy book after book just to glean everything he wrote in his lifetime.
To put it simply, if you have any interest in philosophy, literature, poetry, religion, or life, read Emerson. You may not be convinced by his arguments, but there's no point in nodding your way through a book. What remains after you finish reading it is what counts, and few writers can be found whose works are as pervasive and fondly remembered as Emerson's are.
56 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Altering pieces of work
30 Oct 2003
Format:Paperback
With all the books written about philosophy today, and in the past, this should be perhaps, by far, the most sought after work. Camus and Dostoevsky have contributed much to thought and philosophy of existentialism, but this seems to, in its own way, surpass any labeling of a type of philosophy.
Self-Reliance has to be one of the most understood pieces in the collection. Mr. Emerson speaks in a tone that is easily understood and thoughts explained in plain english, no degree required to understand. And once understood, ideas are easy to apply to our own life to better understand what we have read.
Without a doubt, this book is a must in any thinkers library. Walt Whitman says it best about this book, "I was simmering, simmering, simmering. Emerson brought me to a boil." A genius of a book.
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