In this book, the author traces the sources of ideas and theories that have long been considered the exclusive province of Friedrich Nietzsche to the surprisingly radical writings of the American essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I previously taught philosophy both at Long Island University and at SUNY in the Rochester, New York area. When I finally decided to enter college it was because I wanted to be a fiction writer. My interests in literature, psychology, and philosophy were always in competition.
Friedrich Nietzsche was my first and strongest influence, even though the leading existentialists were equally as dramatic. To this day, I am as fascinated by philosophy as ever. It keeps me active in writing and going against the currents.
Ironically, one of my most recent stimulating interests is in the essays and philosophical insights of Ralph W. Emerson. In Nietzsche and Emerson (1992) I tried to show that Nietzsche was very much influenced by the leader of the American Literary Renaissance. My recent contribution can be found in Emerson for the Twenty-first Century in the essay "Emerson and Postmodernism" (2010) published by University of Delaware Press.
