Transcendentalism A Reader

by Myerson, Joel

• ISBN13: 9780195122121
• ISBN10: 0195122127
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The transcendentalist movement is generally recognized to be the first major watershed in American literary and intellectual history. Pioneered by Emerson, Thoreau, Orestes Brownson, Margaret Fuller, and Bronson Alcott (among others), Transcendentalism provided a springboard for the firstdistinctly American forays into intellectual culture: religion and religious reform, philosophy, literature, ecology, and spiritualism. This new collection, edited by eminent American literature scholar Joel Myerson, is the first anthology of the period to appear in over fifty years.Transcendentalism: A Reader draws together in their entirety the essential writings of the Transcendentalist group during its most active period, 1836-1844. It includes the major publications of the Dial, the writings on democratic and social reform, the early poetry, nature writings, and all ofEmerson's major essays, as well as an informative introduction and annotations by Myerson.

Author Biography

Joel Myerson is Carolina Distinguished Professor of American Literature at the University of South Carolina. He is the editor of A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson (Oxford, 1999).

Table of Contents

Note on the Texts	xix
Further Reading	xxi
Introduction	xxv
``Likeness to God'' (1828)	3	(18)
William Ellery Channing
``Genius'' (1821; published 1849)	21	(5)
Sampson Reed
Observations on the Growth of the Mind (1826)	26	(36)
Sampson Reed
Sermon CXXI (17 July 1831)	62	(6)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``The Lord's Supper,'' Sermon CLXII (9 September 1832)	68	(10)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``Coleridge's Literary Character'' (March 1833)	78	(19)
Frederic Henry Hedge
``Explanatory Preface,'' Record of a School (1836)	97	(27)
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
Nature (1836)	124	(36)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``Letter to the Editor'' (5 November 1836)	160	(2)
Andrews Norton
``Letter to the Editor'' (9 November 1836)	162	(5)
George Ripley
The Doctrine and Discipline of Human Culture (1836)	167	(14)
A. Bronson Alcott
Conversations with Children on the Gospels (1836-1837)	181	(14)
A. Bronson Alcott
``The American Scholar'' (1837)	195	(17)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``Introductory'' (6 December 1837) to Human Culture lecture series	212	(14)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``Letter to Martin Van Buren'' (14 May 1838)	226	(4)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``Divinity School Address'' (1838)	230	(16)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``The New School in Literature and Religion'' (27 August 1838)	246	(4)
Andrews Norton
The Personality of the Deity (1838)	250	(10)
Henry Ware, Jr.
The Previous Question between Mr. Andrews Norton and His Alumni (1840)	260	(20)
Levi Blodgett
Theodore Parker
``Woman'' from ``The Conversations of Margaret Fuller'' (Spring 1840)	280	(9)
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
Prospectus for The Dial (July 1840)	289	(2)
``The Editors to the Reader'' (July 1840)	291	(3)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``A Short Essay on Critics'' (July 1840)	294	(6)
Margaret Fuller
``Orphic Sayings'' (July 1840 and other dates)	300	(7)
A. Bronson Alcott
letter to Emerson (9 November 1840), and Emerson, letter to Ripley (15 December 1840)	307	(7)
George Ripley
``Woman'' (January 1841)	314	(4)
Sophia Ripley
``Self-Reliance'' (1841)	318	(22)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Discourse of the Transient and Permanent in Christianity (1841)	340	(26)
Theodore Parker
``The Transcendentalist'' (23 December 1841)	366	(15)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``Transcendental Bible'' (1841?)	381	(2)
Lidian Jackson Emerson
``The Great Lawsuit. Man versus Men. Woman versus Women'' (July 1843)	383	(45)
Margaret Fuller
``Fruitlands'' (July 1843)	428	(2)
A. Bronson Alcott
Charles Lane
``Introduction'' to the Present (September 1843)	430	(5)
William Henry Channing
``The Consociate Family Life'' (8 September 1843)	435	(7)
Charles Lane
A. Bronson Alcott
``A Winter Walk'' (October 1843)	442	(14)
Henry David Thoreau
``Brook Farm'' (January 1844)	456	(5)
Charles Lane
Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education, Constitution (1844)	461	(9)
Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education, from Constitution, 2d ed. (1844)	470	(3)
``New Year's Day'' (28 December 1844)	473	(5)
Margaret Fuller
Prospectus and ``Introductory Notice'' for the Harbinger (14 June 1845)	478	(6)
George Ripley
``The Wrongs of American Women. The Duty of American Women'' (30 September 1845)	484	(8)
Margaret Fuller
``Gifts,'' ``The River,'' and ``Sonnet XI''	492	(2)
William Ellery Channing
``Correspondences,'' ``To the Aurora Borealis,'' and ``Enosis''	494	(4)
Christopher Pearse Cranch
``Sweet is the pleasure'' and ``Music''	498	(1)
John Sullivan Dwight
``Hymn: Sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument, April 19, 1836,'' ``Each and All,'' ``Uriel,'' ``Hamatreya,'' ``Ode, Inscribed to W.H. Channing,'' ``Blight,'' ``Threnody,'' ``Brahma,'' ``Days,'' ``Two Rivers,'' and ``Terminus''	499	(18)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``To the Same. A Feverish Vision,'' ``Leila in the Arabian Zone,'' ``Double Triangle, Serpent and Rags,'' ``For the Power to whom we bow,'' ``The Sacred Marriage,'' ``Flaxman,'' ``Meditations,'' and ``Sistrum''	517	(6)
Margaret Fuller
``Questionings''	523	(1)
Frederic Henry Hedge
``I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty'' and ``Better a sin which purposed wrong to none''	524	(1)
Ellen Sturgis Hooper
``Inspiration,'' ``The Poet's Delay,'' ``Rumors from an Aeolian Harp,'' ``Smoke,'' ``Haze,'' ``On fields oer which the reaper's hand has passd,'' ``Brother where dost thou dwell?,'' ``Conscience is instinct bred in the house,'' and ``Low-anchored cloud''	525	(6)
Henry David Thoreau
``Nature,'' ``The Columbine,'' ``The New Birth,'' ``The Son,'' ``The Song,'' ``The Soldier of the Cross,'' ``The Dead,'' ``The Rail Road,'' ``The Graveyard,'' ``Flee to the Mountains,'' ``The Eagles,'' ``The Prisoner,'' and ``On Finding the Truth''	531	(10)
Jones Very
``Things and Thoughts in Europe. No. XVIII'' (1 January 1848)	541	(5)
Margaret Fuller
``Resistance to Civil Government'' (1849)	546	(20)
Henry David Thoreau
A Sermon of the Public Function of Woman (1853)	566	(20)
Theodore Parker
``Seventh of March Speech on the Fugitive Slave Law, 7 March 1854''	586	(16)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``Slavery in Massachusetts'' (4 July 1854)	602	(13)
Henry David Thoreau
``Address at the Woman's Rights Convention, 20 September 1855''	615	(13)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``A Plea for Captain John Brown'' (30 October 1859)	628	(20)
Henry David Thoreau
Theodore Parker's Experience as a Minister (1859)	648	(6)
Theodore Parker
``Thoreau'' (August 1862)	654	(16)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
``Cambridge'' (1891)	670	(4)
James Freeman Clarke
Transcendentalism in New England (1895)	674	(9)
Caroline Dall
Bibliographies	683	(14)
Index	697