Books with author Ralph Waldo Emerson

Representative Men: Seven Lectures - Including: Uses of Great Men, Plato or the Philosopher, Swedenborg or the Mystic, Montaigne or the Skeptic, Shakspeare or the Poet, Napoleon Man of the World AND Goethe or the Writer by Ralph Waldo Emerson 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."

This volume, edited by Carl Bode in collaboration with Malcolm Cowley, presents the essential Emerson, selected from works that eloquently express the philosophy of a worldly idealist. The Portable Emerson comprises essays, including “History,” “Self-Reliance,” “The Over-Soul,” “Circles,” and “The Poet”; Emerson’s first book, Nature, in its entirety; twenty-two poems, including “Uriel,” “The Humble-Bee,” and “Give All to Love”; orations, including “The American Scholar,” “The Fugitive Slave Law,” and “John Brown”; English Traits, complete; and biographical essays on Plato, Napoleon, Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Carlyle, and others.

Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship. Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would put. He acts it as life, before he apprehends it as truth. In like manner, nature is already, in its forms and tendencies, describing its own design. Let us interrogate the great apparition, that shines so peacefully around us. Let us inquire, to what end is nature?

In this poem of simple everyday pleasures by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the renowned essayist and poet, the inspiration and beauty of nature is captured in the modest words of a grateful heart. Mark Graham gracefully renders these simple pleasures with impressionistic landscapes that show a family's camping adventure in the wilderness—a special time of togetherness, joy, and wonder. With its spare text and breathtaking art, here is a perfect gift that will speak to readers of all ages and diverse religious backgrounds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States In Nature, Emerson writes about the extraordinary power of nature as a way of bringing the divine into our lives. The essay stresses the importance of being an individual, resisting the comfort of conformity, and creating an art of living in harmony with nature.

Edition perfect as a gift. "The foundations of man are not in matter, but in spirit. But the element of spirit is eternity. To it, therefore, the longest series of events, the oldest chronologies are young and recent. In the cycle of the universal man, from whom the known individuals proceed, centuries are points, and all history is but the epoch of one degradation."

The present edition is a verbatim reproduction of Emerson's "Essays: First Series", first published in 1841. These 12 essays, along with his "Second Series," represent the core of Emerson's thinking, and the heart of Transcendentalism. Essays included are: "History," "Self-Reliance," "Compensation," "Spiritual Laws," "Love," "Friendship," "Prudence," "Heroism," "The Over-Soul," "Circles," "Intellect," and "Art."

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid 19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays & correspondence and more than 1,500 public lectures and speeches across the United States. Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays & correspondence and speeches encompasses a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability of humankind to realize almost anything, and the relationship between the soul and the surrounding world. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures and speeches first, then revised them for print. His most famous collections of essays are contained in this volume and they were originally published in the 1840's 1841. In addition to twelve classic Ralph Waldo Emerson essays, this anthology volume also inludes the core of Ralph Waldo Emerson's thinking. This anthology volume includes Waldo's well known essay; Self-Reliance. Self Reliance contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow their own instincts and ideas. Whether derived from an Emerson speech, lecture, essay, or correspondence, this edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson's work is an invaluable literature compilation.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid 19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays & correspondence and more than 1,500 public lectures and speeches across the United States. Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays & correspondence and speeches encompasses a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability of humankind to realize almost anything, and the relationship between the soul and the surrounding world. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures and speeches first, then revised them for print. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Nature, Emerson puts forth the foundation of transcendentalism, a belief system that espouses a non-traditional appreciation of nature. Within the essay, Emerson divides nature into four usages; Commodity, Beauty, Language, and Discipline. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, those four distinctions define the ways by which humans use nature for their basic needs. Emerson followed the success of his Nature essay with a speech called The American Scholar, which together with his previous lectures laid the foundation for transcendentalism and his literary career.