The Portable Emerson (Viking Portable Library) [Paperback]

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author), Carl Bode (Editor), Malcolm Cowley (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0140150943 | ISBN-13: 978-0140150940 | Publication Date: August 27, 1981

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 - April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century.

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (August 27, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140150943
• ISBN-13: 978-0140150940
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #279,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as well edited as it could be, March 1, 2002

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Portable Emerson (Viking Portable Library) (Paperback)

I love Emerson. For my money, he's one of the most insightful thinkers and beautiful stylists this country has produced. He deserves better than he's received from "professional" philosophers who tend to dismiss him as "just" a person of letters (as if that were a shameful thing to be!).

But this collection of Emersonia is seriously flawed. It prints the essays in Emerson's first collection, but only two from his second. It omits some of his best poems (including "The Sphinx," which Emerson himself so valued that he always had it printed at the very beginning of all the books of poems he published during his lifetime), as well as all of the later essays. In their place, the editors choose to print Emerson's "English Traits," a pleasant enough travel book but rather fluffy compared to the rest of his works. As the editors admit in their Introduction (itself a rather disappointing effort), they tend to feel uncomfortable with Emerson's work on mysticism, and so they decided to leave out of their anthology huge chunks of it. But since Emerson is first and foremost a mystical writer, this is to seriously misrepresent him.

In short, read Emerson--but find a better one-volume collection of his work than this one.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Master of all Existentialism., March 29, 2000

By 

Roland G. Martinez "Roland Martinez" (Nashua, Nh) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Portable Emerson (Viking Portable Library) (Paperback)

Emerson is one of the greats, there is no doubt about that. The reason that I only gave this book four stars is that this book includes some of the worst of Emerson. His essays on Self Reliance and on Faith in America are timeless classics; however his essay on for example, English traits, was very dry. I do recommend it, but keep in mind that unless you really, really dig Emmerson you may not like over half of this volume.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Man of Great Intellect and Heart, February 25, 2008

By 

C. Middleton (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Portable Emerson (Viking Portable Library) (Paperback)

After scanning through and thinking about the works of Marcus Aurilius, another philosopher came to mind, the 19th century lecturer, essayist and Trancendentalist, R.W. Emerson. There are certainly connections between these two great thinkers', however the space provided here is limited and therefore would be a disservice. This particular edition of The Portable Emerson is full of gems, including essays on "The American Scholar", "History" and my particular favourite, excerpts from his journals a letters.

Emerson was a prolific journal writer, where can be found the seeds to his insight into life and the plight of the human being.

Many years ago I read, Emerson: The Mind on Fire (Centennial Books) by Robert D. Richardson JR., a true masterpiece in the genre of biography and a labour of love. It is in this bioraphy one can capture Emerson's mind and great heart. (More than likely my favourite biography of all time.)

This volume, (A Portable Emerson) is filled with essays, poems and lectures that reveals a man who incessantly sought the truth, and attempted and succeeded through his many lectures across the eastern American coast.

Evidently he was a persuasive lecturer motivating thousands of Americans -which is a true gift.

One of my favourite quotes from this volume:

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."

A man who loved the world and contributed to its betterment.