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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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The essays in this book, first published in 1860, were developed from a series of lectures on "The Conduct of Life" delivered by Emerson during the early 1850s. Some of the original lectures were dropped and the rest were considerably revised, with new topics introduced. The published essays, on "Fate," "Power," "Wealth," "Culture," "Behavior," "Worship," "Considerations by the Way," "Beauty," and "Illusions," show Emerson's interest in many practical aspects of human life, and reflect his increasing involvement in politics--chiefly in the antislavery movement--during the decade before the Civil War.

This edition is based on Emerson's holograph manuscripts and published sources. The text incorporates Emerson's later corrections and revisions, and shows us what he actually wrote (or, perhaps in some cases, intended to write).

Barbara Packer's historical introduction traces the book's development and its relation to Emerson's own personal growth and political awareness. Joseph Slater's explanatory notes help the modern reader to understand many of Emerson's references and allusions that may not be readily apparent.

Product Description
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 - April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Man of Great Intellect and Heart
After scanning through and thinking about the works of Marcus Aurilius, another philosopher came to mind, the 19th century lecturer, essayist and Trancendentalist, R.W. Emerson. There are certainly connections between these two great thinkers', however the space provided here is limited and therefore would be a disservice. This particular edition of The Portable Emerson is full of gems, including essays on "The American Scholar", "History" and my particular favourite, excerpts from his journals a letters.

Emerson was a prolific journal writer, where can be found the seeds to his insight into life and the plight of the human being.

Many years ago I read, Emerson: The Mind on Fire (Centennial Books) by Robert D. Richardson JR., a true masterpiece in the genre of biography and a labour of love. It is in this bioraphy one can capture Emerson's mind and great heart. (More than likely my favourite biography of all time.)

This volume, (A Portable Emerson) is filled with essays, poems and lectures that reveals a man who incessantly sought the truth, and attempted and succeeded through his many lectures across the eastern American coast.

Evidently he was a persuasive lecturer motivating thousands of Americans -which is a true gift.

One of my favourite quotes from this volume:

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."

A man who loved the world and contributed to its betterment.

Emerson, the Great Sage
Note: Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks.

Most educated people are familiar with Emerson's epigrams of wisdom, but there is a whole world to explore in his essays and poems. "The Portable Emerson" gives the reader an excellent overview of Emerson's major works.

Emerson's comments in the "American Scholar" about his own time place our age in perspective:

"Our age is bewailed as the age of introversion. Must that needs be evil. We, it seems, are critical; we are embarrassed with second thoughts; we cannot enjoy any thing for hankering to know whereof the pleasure consists; we are lined with eyes; we see with our feet; the time is infected with Hamlet's unhappiness,--
'Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.'"

I hope you find something you like in my little review. Here is part of "The Problem," a poem:

I like a church; I like a cowl; (cowl: a monk's hooded cloak)
I love a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles;
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowled churchman be.

A poem: "The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is The Flower?"

"Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being."

"Merlin," a poem:

"But mount to paradise
By the stairway of surprise."

And always remember the "Concord Hymn" (sung on July 4, 1837 at the dedication of the monument at Concord). Today near the bridge, there are some British flags to mark the graves of two of the King's soldiers. There are some neat unidentified lines that might have come from Emerson.

"Here lie two British soldiers who sailed three thousand miles across the ocean to keep the past upon the throne."

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world."

Not as well edited as it could be
I love Emerson.For my money, he's one of the most insightful thinkers and beautiful stylists this country has produced.He deserves better than he's received from "professional" philosophers who tend to dismiss him as "just" a person of letters (as if that were a shameful thing to be!).

But this collection of Emersonia is seriously flawed.It prints the essays in Emerson's first collection, but only two from his second.It omits some of his best poems (including "The Sphinx," which Emerson himself so valued that he always had it printed at the very beginning of all the books of poems he published during his lifetime), as well as all of the later essays.In their place, the editors choose to print Emerson's "English Traits," a pleasant enough travel book but rather fluffy compared to the rest of his works.As the editors admit in their Introduction (itself a rather disappointing effort), they tend to feel uncomfortable with Emerson's work on mysticism, and so they decided to leave out of their anthology huge chunks of it.But since Emerson is first and foremost a mystical writer, this is to seriously misrepresent him.

In short, read Emerson--but find a better one-volume collection of his work than this one.

JOY!
Every Emerson volume is 'a good read'.Unlike some other readers, I love English Traits, maybe because I am English. Emerson is a joy, everyone should read him, at least once.

Excellent Emerson
Emerson's writings are eaily and clearly displayed in this wonderful publication.My thirst for poetry was easily quenched with his powerful and meaningful words.I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes toread thoughtful and discriptive literature. ... Read more

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Introduction and Notes by Robert E. Spiller
Text Established by Alfred R. Ferguson

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:IllELOQUENCEHe, when the rising storm of party roared,Brought his great forehead to the council board,There, while hot heads perplexed with fears the state,Calm as the morn the manly patriot safe;Seemed, when at last his clarion accents brokeAs if the conscience of the country spoke.Not on its base Monadnoc surer stood,Than he to common sense and common good:No mimic; from his breast his counsel drew,Believed the eloquent was aye the true;He bridged the gulf from th' alway good and wiseTo that within the vision of small eyes.Self-centred; when he launched the genuine wordIt shook or captivated all who heard,Ran from his mouth to mountains and the sea,And burned in noble hearts proverb and prophecy."true eloquence I find to be none but the serious and hearty love of truth; and that whose mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others, when such a man would speak, his words, by what I can express, like so many nimble and any servitors, trip about him at command and in well-ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their own places." — Milton.ELOQUENCEI DO not know any kind of history, except the event of a battle, to which people listen with more interest than to any anecdote of eloquence ; and the wise think it better than a battle. It is a triumph of pure power, and it has a beautiful and prodigious surprise in it. For all can see and understand the means by which a battle is gained : they count the armies, they see the cannon, the musketry, the cavalry, and the character and advantages of the ground, so that the result is often predicted by the observer with great certainty before the charge is s... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pre-Inflation
These days, celebrity authors earn thousands of dollars for a speech, but back in the 1880s, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the first American author known to receive payment for delivering a talk, was paid $5 and oats for his horse. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 9; Original Published by: Houghton Mifflin and company in 1854 in 598 pages; Subjects: Poetry / General; Poetry / American / General; ... Read more

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Emerson's second collection of essays appeared in 1844, when he was forty-one. It includes eight essays--"The Poet," "Experience," "Character," "Manners," "Gifts," "Nature," "Politics," and "Nominalist and Realist"--and one address, the much misunderstood "New England Reformers." Essays: Second Series has a lightness of tone and an irony absent from the earlier writings, but it is no less memorable: "a sermon to me," Carlyle wrote, "a real word."

The present edition, drawing on the vast body of Emerson scholarship of the last forty years, incorporates all the textual changes Emerson made or demonstrably intended to make after 1844. It records variant wordings and recounts the development of the text before and after publication. A list of parallel passages makes it possible to trace Emerson's extensive use of material from his journals, notebooks, and lectures. Endnotes provide information about people, events, and now-obscure terms. A brief historical introduction places the book in the context of the years during which it was written, the time of Brook Farm, The Dial, and the death of Emerson's five year-old son.

Historical Introduction and Notes by Joseph Slater
Text Established by Alfred R. Ferguson and Jean Ferguson Carr
Textual Introduction and Apparatus by Jean Ferguson Carr

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 4; Original Published by: Houghton, Mifflin in 1903 in 425 pages; Subjects: Humor / Form / Essays; Literary Collections / American / General; Literary Collections / Essays; Literary Criticism / American / General; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

FALSE ADVERTISING
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK--it is NOT what is advertised.The book purports to be "The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson", but it is not: it contains only Emerson's poems.This book--which costs far too much at $24.99--should be pulled from Amazon's offerings. ... Read more

Product Description
Some of Emerson's finest and most famous essays, such as "Self-Reliance," "Compensation," and "The OverSoul," appeared in his Essays of 1841, published when he was thirty-seven years old. Preceded by the slim volume Nature, it was his first full-length book.

The present edition provides for the first time an authoritative text of the Essays, together with an introduction, notes, and supplementary material of great value for the study of Emerson's creative processes. A list of hundreds of parallel passages in his earlier journals and lectures makes it possible to examine in detail how he drew upon those manuscripts (now published), especially the voluminous journals, as grist for the twelve essays. His subsequent alterations of the essays, particularly in the revised edition of 1847, give evidence of the evolution of his thought and style at this stage of his career. While the text incorporates his revisions, so as to represent his final intention, the earlier versions are given at the end of the book.

Introduction and Notes by Joseph Slater
Text Established by Alfred R. Ferguson and Jean Ferguson Carr