The Heart of Emerson's Journals

I picked up this book from the free bookstore in Baltimore MD (which by the way, if you haven't been there and live in the area you MUST check it out...its all free books). Anyway, this is a great collection of material from Emerson's journals. Not only is the content very rich in the wonderful bliss of Emerson's typical philosophy but it is also a great insight into Emerson the man. The chosen content ranges from small sketches that led to his greater works to quick little thoughts which give a great a humble and personal look into the thought process of the man himself. I highly recommend this book.

Emerson is a poetic- thinker. And like his friend and disciple Thoreau, like Kierkegaard, like Kafka, like Camus some of his beautiful and most memorable lines come from his 'Journals'. The 'Journals' are not simply reflections on a life that is being lived, they are also the place where new ideas originate and are tried. They too are an intimate companion, and a record of 'thoughts' of a kind which might not enter into more formal and elaborated 'Essays.' Perry was a distinguished Emerson scholar who knew the work well, and made for this volume selections of some of the most significant passages of the 'Journals'.

For thirty years I have coveted a battered copy of Bliss Perry's abbreviated edition of Emerson's Journals which my father carried in his sea bag during World War II. I first read this edition at age fifteen, and now most recently at age forty-four and continue to find much to startle and enlighten. As a literary figure, Emerson towers over every other American writer. Not just through his own Essays and poetry is the arm of his influence so large, but chiefly through his influence on "disciples" like Thoreau, Whitman and a hundred others. His journals are the mother lode of this rich influence. There are few greater books to carry in our own sea bags.