Ralph Waldo Emerson : Essays & Poems (Library of America College Editions)

Rating:
Summary: An Emerson Bible
Review: There's no need to say much about this. It's Emerson. He is revered as our "First Man" in American--our truly Original Adam in the Morning. It has been said that all thinking in America since Emerson is either with him or against him. He inspires in both directions--Melville mocked him and Eliot scorned him while Dickinson learned from him and Whitman proclaimed that Emerson brought him to a boil. This divided reaction continues to this day (note the reverance of critic Harold Bloom and philosopher Stanley Cavell and at the same time the derision of John Updike and Robert Penn Warren) though he is certainly back in academic vogue.

This combination of two L of A editions (Essays and Poems are published separately) creates a book that can be your daily bread. This is essential Emerson at your fingertips. The actual book is voluminous yet not cumbersome--and though thick, it handles easily and wears well--perfect for compulsive thumbing through.

Here are some of my favorite books about Emerson, biographical and critical: "Emerson: The Mind on Fire" by Robert D. Richardson is by far my favorite biography (it is still said that the work by Ralph Rusk is the definitive "factual" bio); Bloom's work is peppered with essays on Emerson, "Agon" is a nice collection as is "Figures of Capable Imagination"; Richard Poirier writes with a constant eye toward Emerson ("The Renewal of Literature", "Poetry and Pragmatism") as does Stanley Cavel ("Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome", "This New Yet Unapproachable America"); and I really like a book by Mark Edmundson called "Towards Reading Freud : Self-Creation in Milton, Wordsworth, Emerson, and Sigmund Freud". And there are hundreds of critical studies (probably thousands) to consult--the classic being Stephen Whicher's "Freedom and Fate" (but I like Jonathan Bishop's "Emerson on the Soul" better).

Enough rambling. Emerson continues to be startling at every turn--you may think you know him ("Hitch your wagon to a star", "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" etc.), but he will not be penned in.