The heart of Emerson's Journals [Hardcover]

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author), Bliss Perry (Editor) (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1926 | ISBN-10: 1199722421 | ISBN-13: 978-1199722423 | Edition: 1ST

Carefully selected passages from 55 years of journal entries: thoughts, religious sentiments, impressions of books, authors, contemporaries, much more. Splendid, revealing record of Emerson’s personal beliefs, as well as a social and historical record of his age. "Beyond all doubt this . . . volume will extend the sphere of Emerson’s influence."—Springfield Republican. Biographical notes.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 357 pages
• Publisher: Riverside Press; 1ST edition (1926)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1199722421
• ISBN-13: 978-1199722423
• ASIN: B0006AJTEM
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,273,579 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

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mother Lode of American Literature, February 19, 2002

By 

Bay Gibbons (Salt Lake City, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Heart of Emerson's Journals (Paperback)

For thirty years I have coveted a battered copy of Bliss Perry's abbreviated edition of Emerson's Journals which my father carried in his sea bag during World War II. I first read this edition at age fifteen, and now most recently at age forty-four and continue to find much to startle and enlighten.

As a literary figure, Emerson towers over every other American writer. Not just through his own Essays and poetry is the arm of his influence so large, but chiefly through his influence on "disciples" like Thoreau, Whitman and a hundred others. His journals are the mother lode of this rich influence.

There are few greater books to carry in our own sea bags.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The reflections of a poet- thinker, May 21, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Heart of Emerson's Journals (Paperback)

Emerson is a poetic- thinker. And like his friend and disciple Thoreau, like Kierkegaard, like Kafka, like Camus some of his beautiful and most memorable lines come from his 'Journals'.
The 'Journals' are not simply reflections on a life that is being lived, they are also the place where new ideas originate and are tried. They too are an intimate companion, and a record of 'thoughts' of a kind which might not enter into more formal and elaborated 'Essays.'
Perry was a distinguished Emerson scholar who knew the work well, and made for this volume selections of some of the most significant passages of the 'Journals'.

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful Collection, July 15, 2009

By 

B. Baltz (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I picked up this book from the free bookstore in Baltimore MD (which by the way, if you haven't been there and live in the area you MUST check it out...its all free books). Anyway, this is a great collection of material from Emerson's journals. Not only is the content very rich in the wonderful bliss of Emerson's typical philosophy but it is also a great insight into Emerson the man. The chosen content ranges from small sketches that led to his greater works to quick little thoughts which give a great a humble and personal look into the thought process of the man himself. I highly recommend this book.