Like Goethe, Ralph Waldo Emerson wanted to be the cultural historian and interpreter of his age-its business, politics, discoveries. The journals and notebooks included in this volume and covering in depth the years 1848 to 1851 reflect Emerson's preoccupations with the events of these often turbulent years in America. On his return to Concord from his successful lecture trip to England and visit to Paris in 1847-1848, Emerson resumed his familiar life of writer, thinker, and lecturer. Impressions of his recent European ...
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Like Goethe, Ralph Waldo Emerson wanted to be the cultural historian and interpreter of his age-its business, politics, discoveries. The journals and notebooks included in this volume and covering in depth the years 1848 to 1851 reflect Emerson's preoccupations with the events of these often turbulent years in America. On his return to Concord from his successful lecture trip to England and visit to Paris in 1847-1848, Emerson resumed his familiar life of writer, thinker, and lecturer. Impressions of his recent European travels appear in passages in this volume which are used later in English Traits (1856). He writes of technological and scientific discoveries in America and abroad-one of which, the discovery of ether, was to involve his brother-in-law in legal embroilment. He ponders the meaning, for "the age" or "the times," of reports on the Dew textile mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, of faster steamers daily breaking records, of new geological and paleontological findings, of theories of race, and many other matters that were coming increasingly to the fore in the mid-nineteenth century. Many passages on these topics, used first in lectures, later appear in his essays "Fate," "Wealth," and "Power" in Conduct of Life (1860). He was also adding to his critical biographies for Representative Men (1850), with special attention to Swedenborg, always a source of particular interest for Emerson. Between 1850 and 1853, Emerson traveled farther west to lecture than he had hitherto ventured-to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and many other cities in the midwest. One notebook in the present volume records his customary percipient observations of places and people encountered during these western trips. The tragic drowning of Margaret Fuller Ossoli and her family on her return from Italy in 1850 prompted Emerson to consider a collaboration on her life and writings, and another notebook printed here contains her memorabilia, including original entries by Emerson. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli by Emerson, William Henry Charming, and James Freeman Clarke, was published in 1852. Passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 brought to a boil something in Emerson that had long been simmering. Concerned with slavery, freedom, and the future of the black population in America more than his public record had shown, he now delivered himself of an outburst-pained, vitriolic, ironic-a more sustained response to a single issue than appears elsewhere in all his journals. In this latest move in a compounding national tragedy he could see only chicanery and deterioration, the crumbling of America's moral fiber. He saw the Fugitive Slave Law in a larger context of a sick age; like Tennyson and Arnold in England, he lamented in moods of spite and chagrin the loss of faith and of an old world where political men of honor stood firm for the moral law. Most of his journal outburst went into his addresses "The Fugitive Slave Law," 1851 and 1854.
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Add this copy of The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo to cart. $127.00, good condition, Sold by BookHouse On-Line rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Minneapolis, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1975 by Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press.
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Good in Missing jacket. Size: 6x1x9; Harvard / Belknap, 1975; same date on title and copyright pages, no printing/edition indicated; xxv, 586pp. Binding is tight, sturdy, and square; light wear to edges of green/sea-green cloth boards, gilt titling remains bold; a few small pen markings in text/margins of fewer than 20 pages, else text is very good throughout; previous owner's bookplate on front paste-down, previous owner's name inscribed on front end page. No dust jacket. Due to the size/weight of this book extra charges may apply for international shipping. Ships same or next business day from Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Fine. Contains: Unspecified. Ralph Waldo Emerson . Includes unspecified. Intended for professional and scholarly audience. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
Add this copy of Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo to cart. $143.90, new condition, Sold by GreatBookPrices rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Columbia, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1975 by The Belknap Press.
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New. Contains: Unspecified. Ralph Waldo Emerson . Includes unspecified. Intended for professional and scholarly audience. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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