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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Author of Essays: First Series and Second Series

689+ Works 17,860 Members 84 Reviews 92 Favorited

About the Author

Known primarily as the leader of the philosophical movement transcendentalism, which stresses the ties of humans to nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and essayist, was born in Boston in 1803. From a long line of religious leaders, Emerson became the minister of the Second Church show more (Unitarian) in 1829. He left the church in 1832 because of profound differences in interpretation and doubts about church doctrine. He visited England and met with British writers and philosophers. It was during this first excursion abroad that Emerson formulated his ideas for Self-Reliance. He returned to the United States in 1833 and settled in Concord, Massachusetts. He began lecturing in Boston. His first book, Nature (1836), published anonymously, detailed his belief and has come to be regarded as his most significant original work on the essence of his philosophy of transcendentalism. The first volume of Essays (1841) contained some of Emerson's most popular works, including the renowned Self-Reliance. Emerson befriended and influenced a number of American authors including Henry David Thoreau. It was Emerson's practice of keeping a journal that inspired Thoreau to do the same and set the stage for Thoreau's experiences at Walden Pond. Emerson married twice (his first wife Ellen died in 1831 of tuberculosis) and had four children (two boys and two girls) with his second wife, Lydia. His first born, Waldo, died at age six. Emerson died in Concord on April 27, 1882 at the age of 78 due to pneumonia and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Series

Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance and Other Essays (1993) 1,538 copies
Essays and Lectures (1983) 968 copies
Self-Reliance (1841) 670 copies
Essays and English Traits (1909) 502 copies
Nature (1836) 432 copies
Selected Essays (1949) 422 copies
Nature and Selected Essays (2003) 337 copies
Representative Men (1850) 285 copies
Essays: First Series (1841) 228 copies
The Portable Emerson (1946) 215 copies
Emerson: Poems (1887) 154 copies
Essays: Second Series (1844) 145 copies
Nature (2008) 142 copies
The Conduct of Life (1863) 124 copies
English Traits (1856) 96 copies
Father, We Thank You (2000) 87 copies
Emerson on man & God (1961) 84 copies
Friendship (1899) 78 copies
Society and Solitude (1870) 70 copies
The Annotated Emerson (2012) 66 copies
Emerson in His Journals (1775) 60 copies
Nature and Other Writings (2003) 57 copies
On Love and Friendship (1896) 50 copies
Journals (1960) 41 copies
Emerson: A Modern Anthology (1958) 38 copies
Letters and social aims (1876) 38 copies
Compensation (1903) 32 copies
The American Scholar (1955) 30 copies
Miscellanies (1884) 22 copies
Divinity School Address (1938) 19 copies
Parnassus (1874) 16 copies
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Selected Prose and Poetry (1959) — Author — 15 copies
The Apology (2016) 15 copies
The Transcendalist (2008) 10 copies
Emerson: Selected Essays (1982) 10 copies
America's Natural Beauty (1993) 10 copies
Friendship & other essays (2018) 10 copies
The Emerson Birthday-Book (1881) 9 copies
Uses of great men (2017) 9 copies
Character (2017) 8 copies
Zeven essays 8 copies
Essays and Other Writings (1907) 7 copies
May-Day and Other Pieces (2011) 7 copies
De overziel (2005) 7 copies
The Poet (1990) 6 copies
Spiritual Law (2007) 6 copies
La conducta de la vida (1901) 5 copies
Emerson's Poems 4 copies
Insanin Gorkemi (2013) 4 copies
History (2007) 4 copies
Circles (2010) 4 copies
The works of Emerson (1928) 4 copies
An address (2018) 3 copies
Intellect (2012) 3 copies
Success (2015) 3 copies
Läroår, ur dagböckerna (1992) 3 copies
Thoreau (2004) 3 copies
In Praise of Books (2005) 3 copies
Manners (1990) 2 copies
Nature and art, 2 copies
Emerson's Essays, Vol 1. (1895) 2 copies
Scholar américain (Le) (2013) 2 copies
Dalla Sicilia alle Alpi (2003) 2 copies
Complete Poems (2013) 2 copies
Spiritualni zakoni (2012) 2 copies
Miscellanies, vol. 1 (2013) 2 copies
Demonology (An Essay) (2004) 2 copies
Essays Emerson (1978) 2 copies
Selected Poems (2016) 2 copies
İnsandaki Mucize (2019) 2 copies
The Oversoul 2 copies
Compter sur soi (1841) 2 copies
Farming (An Essay) (2011) 2 copies
Confia em ti 2 copies
Fate 2 copies
Diario intimo (2018) 2 copies
Uncollected Prose (2004) 2 copies
Prose Works (1875) 2 copies
An Emerson treasury (1989) 2 copies
Selected Works 2 copies
Doga (2020) 1 copy
Yasamin Idaresi (2020) 1 copy
Essay on Compensation (1917) 1 copy
Essays 1 copy
Platón (2008) 1 copy
Esaios (2003) 1 copy
Natura 1 copy
Freindship 1 copy
Szkice 1 copy
The Rhodora (1834) 1 copy
Teologia e natura (1991) 1 copy
On man & God 1 copy
O prirodi (2013) 1 copy
A Natureza (2001) 1 copy
Concord Hymn 1 copy
Nature & Self-Reliance (2012) 1 copy
Emerson's Writings (1875) 1 copy
Doğa (2015) 1 copy
John Brown 1 copy
Carlyle 1 copy
The secrets of success (2001) 1 copy
Essential Emerson CD (2008) 1 copy
Saggi 1 copy
Promenades à Concord (2008) 1 copy
Ausgewählte Texte. (1990) 1 copy
Szkice. Ser. 1, cz. 1 (1994) 1 copy
Gedanken (2011) 1 copy
Poems (2016) 1 copy
The Conservative (2013) 1 copy
Självförtröstan (2016) 1 copy
Emerson Essays (1955) 1 copy
History 1 copy

Associated Works

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1120) — Contributor, some editions — 5,105 copies
La Vita Nuova (1292) — Translator, some editions — 2,175 copies
One Hundred and One Famous Poems (1916) — Contributor, some editions — 1,879 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 902 copies
American Bloomsbury (2006) — Featured Artist — 645 copies
English Poetry, Volume III: From Tennyson to Whitman (1909) — Contributor — 587 copies
A Treasury of the World's Best Loved Poems (1961) — Contributor — 516 copies
Critical Theory Since Plato (1971) — Contributor, some editions — 393 copies
Eight Great Tragedies (1957) — Contributor, some editions — 382 copies
Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology (2004) — Contributor — 293 copies
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1 (1990) — Contributor, some editions — 250 copies
Coleridge's Poetry and Prose [Norton Critical Edition] (2003) — Contributor — 194 copies
The American transcendentalists, their prose and poetry (1957) — Contributor — 186 copies
The Civil War: The Second Year Told By Those Who Lived It (2012) — Contributor — 165 copies
The Blithedale Romance [Norton Critical Edition, 1st ed.] (1978) — Contributor — 163 copies
American Religious Poems: An Anthology (2006) — Contributor — 160 copies
The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature (1998) — Contributor — 157 copies
Life in the Iron Mills [Bedford Cultural Editions] (1997) — Contributor — 142 copies
A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry (1929) — Contributor — 127 copies
The Standard Book of British and American Verse (1932) — Contributor — 110 copies
The Norton Book of Travel (1987) — Contributor — 109 copies
Poets of the Civil War (2005) — Contributor — 93 copies
Storytelling and Other Poems (Childcraft) (1949) — Contributor — 89 copies
Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship (1991) — Contributor — 87 copies
Selected Writings of the American Transcendentalists (1966) — Contributor — 60 copies
The Blithedale Romance [Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed.] (2010) — Contributor — 56 copies
The Signet Book of American Essays (2006) — Contributor — 36 copies
The Dissenters : America's Voices of Opposition (1993) — Contributor — 34 copies
Writing Politics: An Anthology (2020) — Contributor — 34 copies
American Literature: The Makers and the Making (In Two Volumes) (1973) — Contributor, some editions — 25 copies
Classic Essays in English (1961) — Contributor — 22 copies
Inspirational Classics for Latter-Day Saints (2000) — Contributor — 21 copies
Trees: A Celebration (1989) — Contributor — 13 copies
American Poems 1779-1900 (1922) — Contributor — 11 copies
Great Short Works of the American Renaissance (1967) — Contributor — 10 copies
The Analog Sea Review: Number One (2018) — Contributor — 9 copies
The Analog Sea Review: Number Three (2020) — Contributor — 8 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 8, April 1978 (1978) — Contributor — 5 copies
La poesía inglesa románticos y victorianos — Contributor — 4 copies
Plutarch's Essays — Introduction, some editions — 1 copy
The Best of American Poetry [Audio] (1997) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

19th century (423) American (294) American literature (644) anthology (620) classic (270) classics (536) collection (137) Dante Alighieri (97) drama (105) Emerson (258) essay (148) essays (1,587) fiction (548) Folio Society (105) hardcover (92) Harvard Classics (139) history (168) illustrated (89) Italian (103) Italian literature (120) Library of America (282) literary criticism (135) literature (1,126) LOA (106) medieval (98) nature (173) non-fiction (897) own (120) Persia (109) Persian (90) Persian literature (94) philosophy (1,301) poems (105) poetry (3,917) Ralph Waldo Emerson (133) read (121) religion (125) to-read (711) transcendentalism (476) unread (124)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

An introduction to the thought of Emerson.
A thought experiment to understand the relationship between people and nature.
It is interesting to ask and reflect on whether our more detailed description of the properties of nature changes things or simply adds color and depth to Emerson’s perspective.
 
Flagged
waldhaus1 | 8 other reviews | Sep 23, 2023 |
$25. VG condition. Emerson published his journals.
 
Flagged
susangeib | Sep 10, 2023 |
Read “Self-Reliance” and “The Divinity School Address,” that’s about it. Not knocked out but I have a hard time grasping older writing so I assume the shortcoming is mine and not the text. Also things like this I’ve probably absorbed so much of it secondhand in my life that the stuff seems obvious or banal or whatever - I’m sure it wasn’t in his day, and he must have seemed original and shocking , but it just doesn’t set me on fire.
 
Flagged
steve02476 | 7 other reviews | Jan 3, 2023 |

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Works
689
Also by
64
Members
17,860
Popularity
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Rating
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Reviews
84
ISBNs
1,014
Languages
21
Favorited
92
Touchstones
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