Emerson: Essays and Lectures: Nature: Addresses and Lectures / Essays: First and Second Series / Representative Men / English Traits / The Conduct of Life (Library of America) [Hardcover]

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0940450151 | ISBN-13: 978-0940450158 | Publication Date: November 15, 1983

The major works of Emerson's most productive period in their entirety: "Nature: Addresses and Lectures," "Essays: First and Second Series," "Representative Men," "English Traits," and "The Conduct of Life."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Library of America is an award-winning, nonprofit program dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as "the most important book-publishing project in the nation's history" (Newsweek), this acclaimed series is restoring America's literary heritage in "the finest-looking, longest-lasting edition ever made" (New Republic).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1150 pages
• Publisher: Library of America (November 15, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940450151
• ISBN-13: 978-0940450158
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

There are few people as quoted and quotable as Ralph Waldo Emerson, founder of the transcendental movement and author of classic essays as Self-Reliance, Nature, and The American Scholar. Emerson began his career as a Unitarian minister and later put those oratory skills to move us toward a better society. More remains written on him than by him.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emerson: the medium is the message, March 25, 2000

By 

John Rael (America, Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Emerson: Essays and Lectures: Nature: Addresses and Lectures / Essays: First and Second Series / Representative Men / English Traits / The Conduct of Life (Library of America) (Hardcover)

This book is the complete essays and lectures of ralph waldo emerson. It contains everything you could want from emerson, save his journals. His writing is beauty in it's truest form. What he speaks is what you have forever felt to be true. When he warns against self-distrust in self-reliance you feel that he is not only speaking to you, but speaking for you. Reading this book is not only seeing what he has written, but is a demonstration of what he has written. When he writes in "self-reliance" of the reoccuring situation where people have to take their truth from another, the medium becomes the message. Emerson's work as presented in this volume has been under rated by philisophical circles for years. Here you will see that not only is he a great essayist, but that (while unconventional)he is a great philosopher.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emerson's prose are pure poetry and brilliance, October 15, 2004

By 

Thomas Lapins (Orlando, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Emerson: Essays and Lectures: Nature: Addresses and Lectures / Essays: First and Second Series / Representative Men / English Traits / The Conduct of Life (Library of America) (Hardcover)

Emerson is to the literary world in America as Lincoln was to the political world in the 1860's. His stature as a thinker, writer and public figure to admire brought American literature to new heights.


I think Thoreau has more relevance to us in the year 2004, and had profounder insights, but Emerson, more the academic and intellectual, wrote with the elegance and intelligence of the gods. He was much superior to Thoreau in style and breadth of subject matter, he was more well-rounded and able to connect with his peers, both personally and as an author. And through this intimate friendship and association shared by Emerson and Thoreau, and any literary and intellectual comparison made between these two men, only serves to enhance and expand the other's significance and genius. For me there was an integration and balance, a synergy, almost a partnership, in how they contributed to American literature and the intellectual community.


This collection is a beautiful addition to my library. It contains Emerson's major essays e.g. 'Nature,' 'Beauty,' 'Compensation,' 'Self-Reliance,' and 'The Poet' and his public addresses e.g. 'The American Scholar,' (a big favorite of mine.)


This is a quality collection at a reasonable price. I was actually concerned that the quality might suffer because I thought the price so low. But it was not compromised. Both Emerson and this collection should be in your library. Highly recommended.

55 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Theologian of the American Religion", November 18, 2003

By 

Daniel Fineberg (Northridge, California USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Emerson: Essays and Lectures: Nature: Addresses and Lectures / Essays: First and Second Series / Representative Men / English Traits / The Conduct of Life (Library of America) (Hardcover)

I go about the process of reading with a pencil or a pen, underlining now and then when I'm struck by something. Opening this very generous volume of Emerson's writings, I found myself underlining every sentence, every word, so that by the second or third page, I just gave up and made a mental note from then on to consider everything in the book as being underlined. Whoever you are and wherever you are (yes, even if you're from the South, as Emerson could display a decidedly anti-Southern slant), you're sure to find something in his work--many things probably--that will stay with you indefinitely. The Emerson of "Self-Reliance"--genius as he is--is trying to alert each of us to our own genius. It is the ultimate "self-help" book. "A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages." If this seems somewhat contradictory coming from Emerson, you need only read a few pages further and Emerson will set you straight on contrariety.
Along with all these wonderful essays and lectures, this 1,300-page Library of America hardbound edition also has his astonishing book "The Conduct of Life" and assorted uncollected prose. Emerson also left behind a lifetime's worth of journals, which I've heard are equally great, and I very much look forward to poring over them in the future.