A MEMOIR OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON

2 volumes. First Edition, A Unique Copy with Fine Provenance, INSCRIBED, prior to publication by the Author to J.H. Emerson, an Emerson family member. Additionally, an Advance Copy, given in accordance with the author's wishes to personal friends and family of Emerson. Given May 25 on the author's birthday, with admonitions to regard the work as presently confidential and not to be offered for review before formal publication in September of 1887. Very Rare Thus. With a fine gravure portrait of Mr. Emerson to Vol. I. 8vo, publisher's original dark blue polished cloth, the spines lettered in gilt. viii, 382; iv, 383-809 pp. A very fine copy, essentially as pristine and mint.

Edizione: a rare and unique copy of this fine work on one of america's most important figures. inscribed by the author to an emerson family member. in his lifetime, ralph waldo emerson became the most widely known man of letters in america, establishing himself as a prolific poet, essayist, popular lecturer, and an advocate of social reforms who was nevertheless suspicious of reform and reformers. emerson achieved some reputation with his verse, corresponded with many of the leading intellectual and artistic figures of his day, and during an off and on again career as a unitarian minister, delivered and later published a number of controversial sermons. emerson’s enduring reputation, however, is as a philosopher, an aphoristic writer (like friedrich nietzsche) and a quintessentially american thinker whose championing of the american transcendental movement and influence on walt whitman, henry david thoreau, william james, and others would alone secure him a prominent place in american cultural history. iep<br> ralph waldo emerson is most famous for his essays nature, self-reliance, and the american scholar and for being a major figure of transcendentalism. as a transcendentalist, ralph waldo emerson believed in the discovery of truth without reference to dogma or established authority. in his works, he emphasized self-reliance, independence, and non-conformity. d.l wasson whe<br> in the american scholar, emerson spoke of the need for scholarly leadership to escape the "muses of europe" and develop an american character. the essay was initially a phi beta kappa commencement address at harvard college in 1837 and has been called an "american intellectual declaration of independence." (mead, 97) in the audience was the future essayist henry david thoreau (1817-1862). according to emerson, the first thing of importance to a scholar is the influence of nature. next, he must recognize and accept the influence of the past, its literature and arts. the best source of the past is books. books are the best of things when used well but the worst when abused. emerson pointed out that the scholar has duties: guiding men by showing them the facts amidst appearances. a scholar must take upon himself all the contributions of the past, the present, and the future. the scholar is the young man "now crowding to the barriers for a career, do not yet see, that if the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him". emerson ended by saying: "we will walk on our own feet, we will work with our own hands, we will speak with our own minds" (norton, 1147).<br> in 1841, he published his essays, which earned him a lasting reputation in both the united states and europe. among the essays was self-reliance, in which emerson wrote about the need for an individual to be independent and non-conformist. "there is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance and that imitation is suicide that he must take for himself, for better, for worse, as his portion" (norton, 1160). "whosoever would be a man must be a non-conformist" (norton, 1162). society does not like a non-conformist. emerson believed: "what i must do is all that concerns me not what the people think". a person will always find those who think they know what is best, but one must be consistent: "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statemen and philosophers and diviners" (norton, 1164).<br> the two decades prior to the american civil war (1861-65) were a period of dramatic change, and emerson did not shy away from controversy. he protested president martin van buren's (1837-1841) treatment of the cherokee nation's forced march westward (1830-1850), a trek known as the trail of tears. like thoreau, he opposed the mexican-american war (1846-48) and the fugitive slave law of 1850. in a lecture in march 1854, he said: "… the fugitive slave law did much to unglue the eyes of men and now the nebraska bill leaves us staring. the anti-slavery society will add new members this year" (essays, 1216). d.h. wasson whe