Customer Reviews

Emphatically Emerson

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I met the editor at a book fair and he told me this was his way of trying to get Emerson's writings to a new generation.

This is a book of gems culled from the voluminous journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson - whose work I might never have actually been able to wade through (although that might be different now). It is passages from his journal, in cronological order, placed on the page like poetry. With these high minded thoughts, typeset as if this were poetry, I find the thoughts contained therein to be highly accessible and though I generally do not much enjoy reading poetry I liked this much more than I expected to. It has a certain calming effect and is filled with acceptance and wonder with life. That doesn't quite describe it well, nor does it convey how deeply some of these passage resonated with me. I have a great number of post-it notes sticking out of the book's pages and will refer back to them when I feel the need for some calm. The editor has apparently done the same treatment with Thoreau's journals and I look forward to getting my hands on that.

Compiled by Frank Crocitto, Emphatically Emerson is a welcome collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "piercing and poetic insights", enhanced with brief notes and thoughts which Emerson originally jotted down with no particular purpose in mind, yet which contain moving reflections of humans and our place in the greater scheme of things. especially recommended for students of Emerson's life and work, Emphatically Emerson is an insightful and recommended collection. "Little things are often filled / with great beauty. / The cigar / makes visible the respiration of the body, / an universal fact, / of which the ebb and flow of the sea tide / is only one example."