The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.

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. But 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.

Ever since first reading Emerson in college, I've been looking forward to revisiting his essays. Considering this collection is nearly 850 pages long, one would be on solid ground saying that everything Emerson ever wrote is "essential." His best known essays are included here: "Nature," "The American Scholar," "The Transcendentalist," "The Lord's Supper," "The Poet," and my favorite, "Self Reliance," together with essays on subjects including love (pp. 190-200), friendship (pp. 201-214), prudence (pp. 215-224), experience (pp. 307-326), character (pp. 327-340), nature (pp. 364-377), politics (pp. 378-389), farming (pp. 671-581), Plato (pp. 420-445), Napoleon (pp. 447-466), Abraham Lincoln (pp. 829-833), Carlyle (pp. 837-841), and Emerson's friend and neighbor, Thoreau (pp. 809-825). About Thoreau, Emerson writes, "he was bred to no profession, he never married; he lived alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh, he drank no wine, he never knew the use of tobacco; and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. He chose, wisely no doubt for himself, to be the bachelor of thought and Nature . . . It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own" (pp. 810; 817-18).Emerson "opens doors and tells us to look at things for ourselves" (p. xiii) poet, Mary Oliver (THE LEAF AND THE CLOUD), writes in her excellent Introduction to this collection. Like Thoreau, Emerson's writing stays with you for life. "The invariable mark of wisdom," he writes in "Nature," "is to see the miraculous in the common" (p. 38). "It is better to be alone than in bad company," he says in "The Transcendentalist" (p. 90). "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude," he writes in "Self-Reliance" (p. 136). "If we live truly, we shall see truly" (p. 143). In the same essay he says, "We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching" (p. 145). "We live amid surfaces," he observes in "The Poet," "and the true art of life is to skate well on them" (p. 315).Whether you're new to Emerson or not, page after page, this recently-published collection of his "essential writings" will appeal to any reader interested in experiencing an original American thinker.G. Merritt

Having read piece-meal through alot of the Trancendentalists (but never picked up anything more than a quote from Emerson), I picked up this book expecting just to read a couple of essays for perspective and stow it away on my shelves for reference.Thirty-six hours later I was setting the book onto my shelves, but for the sole purpose of retiring for some much needed sleep before spending another five or six hours finishing the book. The editors deserve a tremendous amount of credit for putting the essays and letters together in a way that allows the reader to walk cleanly through the book without losing sight of the author. Having finished the book, I have to admit that Emerson is in a dead-heat with Throreau (for me) as the most inspiring and intelligent of the time. Amazingly clean read with delightful insights that are still relevant today.