A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson (Historical Guides to American Authors)

333 Pages·2000·16.89 MB·English

A Historical Guide to
Ralph Waldo Emerson
JOEL MYERSON,
Editor
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
A H I S T O R I C A L G U I D E TO
Ralph Waldo Emerson
H I S T O R I C A L G U I D E S
TO A M E R I C A N A U T H O R S
The Historical Guides to American Authors is an interdisciplinary, his-
torically sensitive series that combines close attention to the United
States' most widely read and studied authors with a strong sense of
time, place, and history. Placing each writer in the context of the vi-
brant relationship between literature and society, volumes in this series
contain historical essays written on subjects of contemporary social, po-
litical, and cultural relevance. Each volume also includes a capsule biog-
raphy and illustrated chronology detailing important cultural events as
they coincided with the author's life and works, while photographs and
illustrations dating from the period capture the flavor of the author's
time and social milieu. Equally accessible to students of literature and
of life, the volumes offer a complete and rounded picture of each au-
thor in his or her America.
A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway
Edited by Linda Wagner-Martin
A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman
Edited by David S. Reynolds
A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Edited by Joel Myerson
A
Historical Guide
to Ralph Waldo Emerson
ED I T E D BY
J O E L M Y E R S O N
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
2000
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Copyright © 2000 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A historical guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson /
edited by Joel Myerson.
p. cm. — (Historical guides to American authors)
Includes bibliographical references and index,
ISBN 0-19-512093-0; ISBN 0-19-512094-9 (pbk.)
I. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882 2. Literature and history—
United States—-History—I9th century. 3. Authors, American—
19th century Biography. I. Myerson, Joel. II. Series.
PSI63I.H45 1999
814'.3—dc2I 99-13122
[B]
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Matthew J. Bruccoli
An institution is the lengthened shadow
of one man . . . and all history re-
solves itself very easily into the biog-
raphy of a few stout and earnest
persons—
"Self-Reliance" (CW, 2:35-36)
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 3
Joel Myerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882: 9
A Brief Biography
Ronald A. Bosco
EMERSON IN HIS TIME
"The Age of the First Person Singular": 61
Emerson and Individualism
Wesley T. Mott
Emerson, Nature, and Natural Science 101
William Rossi
Emerson and Religion 151
David M. Robinson
viii Contents
Emerson and Antislavery 179
Gary Collison
Emerson in the Context of the
Woman's Rights Movement 211
Armida Gilbert
Illustrated Chronology 251
We Find What We Seek: 269
Emerson and His Biographers
Ronald A. Bosco
Bibliographical Essay 291
Joel Myerson
Contributors 311
Index 313
Abbreviations
AW Emerson's Antislavery Writings, ed. Len Gougeon and Joel
Myerson (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995).
CEC The Correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle, ed. Joseph Slater
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1964).
CS The Complete Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 4 vols.,
ed. Albert J. von Frank et al. (Columbia: University of
Missouri Press, 1989-1992).
C W The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5 vols. to
date, ed. Alfred R. Ferguson, Joseph Slater, and Douglas
Emory Wilson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1971-).
EL The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 3 vols., ed.
Robert E. Spiller, Stephen E. Whicher, and Wallace E.
Williams (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1959-1972).
JMN The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo
Emerson, 16 vols., ed. William H. Gilman, Ralph H.
Orth, et al. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1960-1982).
L The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 10 vols., ed. Ralph L.
Rusk and Eleanor M. Tilton (New York: Columbia Uni-
versity Press, 1939,1990-1995).
TN The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 3 vols., ed.
IX