Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Companion - Paperback

by Prentiss Clark (Author)

In his 1837 speech "The American Scholar," Ralph Waldo Emerson noted, "life is our dictionary," encapsulating a body of work that reached well beyond the American 19th century. This comprehensive study explores Emerson as a preacher, poet, philosopher, lecturer, essayist and editor. There are nearly 100 entries on individual texts and their personal, historical and literary contexts. Emerson's work is placed within his relationships with family members, fellow Transcendentalists and transatlantic friends, and his commitment to ethics, self-culture and social change. This book provides the fullest possible exploration of Emerson's writing and philosophy. Far ahead of his own time, the man enthusiastically questioned institutions, communities, friendships, history, individuality and contemporaneous approaches to environmental stewardship.

Author Biography

Prentiss Clark is an associate professor of English at the University of South Dakota. Her essays appear in The Henry James Review, Nineteenth-Century Literature, The James Baldwin Review and the forthcoming New Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oxford Handbook of Ralph Waldo Emerson.