Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Self-Reliance is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains a stirring call for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and to follow their own instincts and ideas. It contains one of Emerson's most famous quotations: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." The essay, possibly Emerson's most...
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Essays and Poems, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
• New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies...
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Follow the thoughts of essayist, poet and American Transcendentalism founder Ralph Waldo Emerson as he discovered his own belief system in the anthology "Self-Reliance and Other Essays." In "Self-Reliance," Emerson explained that standing on one's own two feet against society was essential to forming a strong union with God. Once this essay was published, it received both wild praise and hurtful backlash from different factions of America. However,...
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In 1834, Emerson, formerly a Unitarian minister, began a new career as a public lecturer. Many of these lectures formed the source material for his essays. Nature (1836), his first published work, contained the essence of his transcendental philosophy, which views the world of natural phenomena as a sort of symbol of the inner life and emphasizes individual freedom and self-reliance. Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson is a collection of twelve of his most...
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For more than fifty-five years Ralph Waldo Emerson kept a journal, recording his thoughts on books, authors, and religion, among other subjects. In this engrossing volume editor Perry Bliss presents the best from these journals, carefully selecting passages to create both a revealing portrait of this formidable thinker and a social and historical record of the era in which he lived.
6) Heroism
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Building on and enriching ideas set forth in "Self-Reliance", Emerson argues that true heroism is self-confidence and persistency in the face of corrosive pressures to conform to society.
7) Prudence
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The essay on "Prudence" was given as a lecture in a course on Human Culture, in the winter of 1837-8. It was published in the first series of Essays, which appeared in 1841. In it, Emerson describes Prudence as "The virtue of the senses" and admits to having little of it in himself.
8) Friendship
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Emerson's treatise on the nature of friendship. "The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
9) Nature
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This version of Nature is an 1843 revision to the popular essay written and published in 1836. In the original essay, Emerson put forth the foundation of transcendentalism, and suggested that reality can be understood by studying nature. Within the essay, Emerson divides nature into four usages: Commodity, Beauty, Language and Discipline. These distinctions define how humans use nature for their basic needs, their desire for delight, their communication...
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The American Scholar was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College. Emerson argues that American culture, still heavily influenced by Europe, could build a new, distinctly American cultural identity. Emerson uses Transcendentalist and Romantic points of view to explain a true American scholar's relationship to nature. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. declared this speech to be America's Intellectual...
11) Gifts
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In "Gifts" Ralph Waldo Emerson muses on the function of and expectations surrounding the giving of gifs. He touches on what gifts communicate about the nature of the giver and receiver, and how the best kind of gift is a gift of love.
12) Circles
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Circles is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841. The essay reflects on the vast array of circles one may find throughout nature and what is suggested by these circles in philosophical terms. In the opening line of the essay Emerson states The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.
13) Compensation
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Emerson's discourse on "the laws of compensation", takes on the notion that one who has money must be wicked and those who do not must be good, among other topics. It appeared in his book "Essays", first published in 1841.
14) Manners
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In "Manners", Ralph Waldo Emerson expounds on the meaning of customs and politeness in civil society. He argues that the purpose of manners is more to facilitate the creation and proper working of society, and not to establish hierarchies.
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In The Poet, an essay by U.S. writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, the author expresses the need for the United States to have its own new and unique poet to write about the new country's virtues and vices. It is not about men of poetical talents, or of industry and skill in meter, but of the true poet. After reading the essay, Walt Whitman consciously set out to answer Emerson's call. When the 1855 edition of Leaves Of Grass was first published, Whitman sent...
16) Essays and Poems
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During the 1800s in America, the rise of industrialization reduced the cost of goods allowing people to have more possessions than ever before. However, a group known as the Transcendentalists believed that possessions created vanity. Instead, they valued the individual's relationship with divinity. One of the movement's most famous members, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote prolifically about his beliefs and experiences. A representative selection of his...
17) Essays
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Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essays are an American classic. These essays explore Emerson's thoughts about transcendentalism and romanticism. Some of the most famous essays in this collection are Self Reliance, Compensation, The Over, Soul, Circles, The Poet, Experience, and Politics.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on 25 of May 1803 in Boston and was a famous writer, American philosopher and poet.
Poetry and Imagination was published in 1836 and is considered one of the most important works of Emerson and served as a major inspiration for writers like Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau in Walden, one of the most important American classics.
19) English Traits
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This collection of essays, published in 1856, grew out of Emerson's travels in England, undertaken shortly after he resigned his ministry following a loss of faith. An insightful survey of English history and manners, English Traits also features accounts of Emerson's meetings with such luminaries as Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Carlyle.
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"Maugre all the selfishness that chills like east winds to the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether"
Ralph Waldo Emerson, known as the father of Transcendentalism, rejected the puritan picture of human depravity and instead argued that people were inherently good. In these essays, titled 'Friendship', 'Love', 'Prudence', 'Heroism', 'Character' and 'Manners', Emerson claims that human connection and an...