Emerson in His Own Time

by Bosco, Ronald A.; Myerson, Joel

• ISBN13: 9780877458425
• ISBN10: 0877458421
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Iowa Pr

Summary

At his death, Nathaniel Hawthorne (18041864) was universally acknowledged in America and England as "the Great Romancer." Novels such asThe Scarlet LetterandThe House of the Seven Gablesand stories published in such collections asTwice-Told Talescontinue to capture the minds and imaginations of readers and critics to this day. Harder to capture, however, were the character and personality of the man himself. So few of the essays that appeared in the two years after his death offered new insights into his life, art, and reputation that Hawthorne seemed fated to premature obscurity or, at least, permanent misrepresentation. This first collection of personal reminiscences by those who knew Hawthorne intimately or knew about him through reliable secondary sources rescues him from these confusions and provides the real human history behind the successful writer. Remembrances from Elizabeth Peabody, Sophia Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Rebecca Harding Davis, and twenty others printed in Hawthorne in His Own Time follow him from his childhood in Salem, through his years of initial literary obscurity, his days in the Boston and Salem Custom Houses, his service as U.S. Consul to Liverpool and Manchester and his life in the Anglo-American communities at Rome and Florence, to his late years as the "Great Romancer." In their enlightening introduction, editors Ronald Bosco and Jillmarie Murphy assess the postmortem building of Hawthorners"s reputation as well as his relationship to the prominent Transcendentalists, spiritualists, Swedenborgians, and other personalities of his time. By clarifying the sentimental associations between Hawthorners"s writings and his actual personality and moving away from the critical review to the personal narrative, these artful and perceptive reminiscences tell the private and public story of a remarkable life.

Author Biography

Ronald A. Bosco is Distinguished Professor of English and American Literature at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and General Editor for The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He is author or editor of many books, including Emerson in His Own Time (Iowa, 2003, with Joel Myerson). Jillmarie Murphy is professor of literature and writing at Schenectady County Community College.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Chronology	xxxiii
[A Visit to Emerson at Concord in 1837]	1	(2)
Amos Bronson Alcott
[Remarks on Emerson in 1838, 1855, and 1858]	3	(7)
Convers Francis
[A Visit from Emerson in 1838]	10	(2)
Ellis Gray Loring
[Reminiscences of a Childhood in Concord in the 1840s]	12	(4)
Annie Sawyer Downs
``The Younger Generation in 1840 from the Diary of a New England Boy''	16	(5)
Richard Frederick Fuller
[At Concord with the Emersons in 1842]	21	(7)
Margaret Fuller
[(A Visit from Emerson in 1847]	28	(5)
Jane Welsh Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
``Emerson as a Lecturer'' (1849)	33	(2)
Anonymous
[Letter to Evert A. Duyckinck about Emerson as a Lecturer] (1849)	35	(3)
Herman Melville
From The Homes of the New World: Impressions of America (1853)	38	(4)
Fredrika Bremer
``Mr. Emerson's Lectures'' (1864)	42	(4)
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn
[Emerson as Seen from the ``Editor's Easy Chair'' in 1865]	46	(3)
George William Curtis
``Ralph Waldo Emerson'' (1865)	49	(4)
Anonymous
From My Study Windows (1871)	53	(5)
James Russell Lowell
``Fuller, Thoreau, Emerson.... The Substance of a `Conversation''' (1871)	58	(4)
Bronson Alcott
[``House burned, Wednesday, 24 July (1872)'']	62	(8)
Anna Alcott Pratt
Louisa May Alcott
Ellen Tucker Emerson
``Emerson: A Literary Interview'' (1874)	70	(4)
Anonymous
From Transcendentalism in New England: A History (1876)	74	(6)
Octavius Brooks Frothingham
From Prose Works 1892 (1881--1882)	80	(4)
Walt Whitman
[Emerson's Death] (1882)	84	(5)
Ellen Tucker Emerson
``Reminiscences of Ralph Waldo Emerson'' (1882)	89	(6)
Louisa May Alcott
[Reminiscences of Emerson] (1882)	95	(7)
Frederic Henry Hedge
``Some Recollections of Ralph Waldo Emerson'' (1882)	102	(9)
Edwin Percy Whipple
From Concord Lectures on Philosophy... at the Concord School of Philosophy in 1882	111	(5)
Julia Ward Howe
Ednah Dow Cheney
From Reminiscences and Memorials of the Men of the Revolution and Their Families (1883)	116	(5)
A. B. Muzzey
From Ralph Waldo Emerson (1884)	121	(7)
Oliver Wendell Holmes
``Notes of Conversations with Emerson'' (1884)	128	(8)
Pendleton King
``Glimpses of Emerson'' (1884)	136	(7)
Annie Adams Fields
``Recollections of Ralph Waldo Emerson'' (1884)	143	(7)
Frank Bellew
``Emerson as Preacher'' (1885)	150	(7)
E.P. Peabody
Emerson as Remembered by His Children] (1889 and 1897, 1902, 1921)	157	(16)
Edward Waldo Emerson
Ellen Tucker Emerson
Edith Emerson Forbes
From Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson (1890)	173	(5)
Charles J. Woodbury
From Literary Recollections and Sketches (1893)	178	(6)
Francis Espinasse
``Random Reminiscences of Emerson'' (1893)	184	(5)
William Henry Furness
``The Philosophers' Camp. Emerson, Agassiz, Lowell, and Others in the Adirondacks'' (1893)	189	(6)
W. J. Stillman
``My First Visit to New England'' (1894)	195	(5)
William Dean Howells
From Sketches from Concord and Appledore (1895)	200	(9)
Frank Preston Stearns
``A Little Gossip'' (1900)	209	(4)
Rebecca Harding Davis
[Emerson in the Yosemite Valley] (1901)	213	(4)
John Muir
From The Centenary of the Birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1903)	217	(7)
William James
Caroline Hazard
``Personal Glimpses of Emerson'' (1903)	224	(5)
Julian Hawthorne
``Emerson: The Teacher and the Man'' (1903)	229	(4)
Moncure D. Conway
``A Sculptor's Reminiscences of Emerson'' (1916)	233	(5)
Daniel Chester French
From Remembered Yesterdays (1923)	238	(4)
Robert Underwood Johnson
From My Garden of Memory: An Autobiography (1923)	242	(6)
Kate Douglas Wiggin
``Recollections of Emerson, His Household and Friends'' (1924)	248	(7)
Elizabeth Oakes Smith
Index	255