Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Front Cover
New American Library, 1983 - 479 pages
A new, wide-ranging selection of Ralph Waldo Emerson's most influential writings, this edition captures the essence of American Transcendentalism and illustrates the breadth of one of America's greatest philosophers and poets. The writings featured here show Emerson as a protester against social conformity, a lover of nature, an activist for the rights of women and slaves, and a poet of great sensitivity. As explored in this volume, Emersonian thought is a unique blend of belief in individual freedom and in humility before the power of nature. "I become a transparent eyeball," Emerson wrote in Nature, "I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God." Written over a century ago, this passage is a striking example of the passion and originality of Emerson's ideas, which continue to serve as a spiritual center and an ideological base for modern thought.

Contents

Foreword
vii
An Emerson Chronology
xxvii
Journals and Letters
36
Nature
186
The American Scholar
223
Divinity School Address
241
SelfReliance
257
The Oversoul
280
Experience
327
Politics
348
Montaigne or the Sceptic
360
Fate
378
Illusions
402
Thoreau
412
Education
429
Selected Bibliography
478

Circles
295
The Poet
306
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Bibliographic information