Customer Reviews

Emerson and Thoreau: Figures of Friendship (American Philosophy)

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This pleasant critical study of friendship in the lives and works of Emerson and Thoreau will have appeal for readers whether they are specialists in American Studies, or if they are simply readers who carry an abiding appreciation for these two challenging writers, or if they are those who wish to explore friendship in the company of some philosophical minds. While the critical essays seek to illuminate how Thoreau and Emerson wrote about friendship and lived as friends to one another and others, in doing so the collection also shows how far Emerson and Thoreau pushed frontiers to affirm the value of friendship without overlooking how it can be illusory or even a source of great pain.The best audience for this book, however, should not be only Emersonians and Thoreauvians; the audience should be those who have cultivated and still nurture long-term bonds with others who are near at hand and seen frequently or with those who maintain friendships over distances through letters or the Internet. Because the book has in fact a wider appeal, I believe the publishers might have reprinted within this volume's bindings Emerson's essay "Friendship" and Thoreau's section "Wednesday" from his "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers." Additionally the book's presentation needs to be improved so that the book as an object in the hand has a friendlier "feel." Probably in our present economic times, university presses are as hard hit as any of us. Indiana University Press, the book's editors, and its contributors should be applauded for this successful and meaningful contribution to a topic that has both broad and specialized appeal.