Description: There is no question that Emerson has maintained his place as one of the seminal figures in American history and literature. In his time, he was the acknowledged leader of the Transcendentalist movement and his poetic legacy, education ideals, and religious concepts are integral to the formation of American intellectual life. In this volume, Joel Myerson, one of the leading experts on this period, has gathered together sparkling new essays that discuss Emerson as a product of his times. Individual chapters provide an extended biographical study of Emerson and his effect on American life, followed by studies of his concept of individualism, nature and natural science, religion, antislavery, and women's rights.
Review Quotes: "Chief among the accomplishments of A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson is the book's effective relocation of Emerson within the major literary, historical, and cultural contexts of nineteenth-century American life. Edited by Joel Myerson--long the dean of American Transcendentalist literary studies--the book is notable for its clear organization, accessible structure, and useful apparatus.... The book promotes a rich, nuanced view of this important American writer...[and] offers a salutary challenge to the stereotypical image of Emerson as an aloof literary philosopher who existed apart from the circumstances of his age."--Nineteenth-Century Prose