For more than fifty-five years Ralph Waldo Emerson kept a journal, recording his thoughts on books, authors, and religion, among other subjects. In this engrossing volume editor Perry Bliss presents the best from these journals, carefully selecting passages to create both a revealing portrait of this formidable thinker and a social and historical record of the era in which he lived.

"A lifelong Emerson lover, teacher, and spiritual seeker reveals how American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson's twelve essential teachings hold the answer to living an authentic and fulfilling life, one that is in harmony with our souls"--

"When a literary icon stays with the Dickinson family, Emily and her housemaid Willa find themselves embroiled in a shocking murder in this new mystery from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author Amanda Flower. August 1856. The Dickinson family is comfortably settled in their homestead on Main Street. Emily's brother, Austin Dickinson, and his new wife are delighted when famous thinker and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson comes to Amherst...

In this engaging biography, Firkins provides a comprehensive account of Emerson's life and a scholarly review of his writings. A narrative filled with colorful excerpts from Emerson's letters, journals, and other writings, as well as anecdotes from Emerson's family and friends, this work brings to life a leading figure of American thought.

The America we know today is so different in its fundamental views about almost every aspect of life as to be unrecognizable to our countrymen of two centuries ago. On issues as divergent as slavery, women's rights, education, the environment, and many others, we are simply no longer the country we were. What is the source of not only these changes, but of our distinctly American way of experiencing ourselves-confident in our value as individuals,

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First published in 1953, Freedom and Fate: An Inner Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson is widely recognized to be the most illuminating of commentaries on Emerson's thought. EMERSON enjoyed, as he wished, an original relation to the universe, one which, like all living relationships, developed and altered with time. Throughout his life he followed the advice of the poet who speaks at the end of Nature: 'Build therefore your own world.' His different insights...

A riveting story of faith, politics, and ideas, Liberty or Justice for All? brings to life four of America's greatest thinkers, whose dialogue across the ages has never been more relevant. The book traces a striking pattern--the vexed relationship of individual liberty to inclusive social justice--in an elaborate fabric, woven over more than three centuries of American history. Philip F. Gura begins his nimble tale with Jonathan Edwards, a fiery preacher...

"This book explores resilience by tracing the linked stories of how Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and William James dealt with personal tragedy: for Emerson, the death of his young wife and, eleven years later, his five-year-old son; for Thoreau, the death of his brother; and for James, the death of his beloved cousin Minny. Weaving together biographical detail with quotations from the writers' journals and letters, Richardson shows readers...

Loving finds in the lives and works of the two writers a symbiosis of spirit that transcends the question of literary influence. Tracing the parallel careers of Emerson and Whitman, the author shows how each served his literary apprenticeship, moved beyond his vocation, prospered, and, finally, declined in his literary achievements. In both cases, Loving follows his subject from vision to wisdom and, along the way, examines the aspects of the relationship...

Partial Portraits examines the work of a range of authors, such as Emerson, Eliot, Trollope, and Stevenson. It includes one of James's most famous essays, The Art of Fiction, in which he argues that writers should not be limited in their subject matter, and that the only obligation a writer has is to make the work interesting.