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Emerson

by Robert D. Richardson, Barry Moser (Adapted by)

4.43 · rating details · 138 ratings · 19 reviews

Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage o...moreRalph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord. Drawing on a vast amount of new material, including correspondence among the Emerson brothers, Richardson gives us a rewarding intellectual biography that is also a portrait of the whole man.
These pages present a young suitor, a grief-stricken widower, an affectionate father, and a man with an abiding genius for friendship. The great spokesman for individualism and self-reliance turns out to have been a good neighbor, an activist citizen, a loyal brother. Here is an Emerson who knew how to laugh, who was self-doubting as well as self-reliant, and who became the greatest intellectual adventurer of his age.
Richardson has, as much as possible, let Emerson speak for himself through his published works, his many journals and notebooks, his letters, his reported conversations. This is not merely a study of Emerson's writing and his influence on others; it is Emerson's life as he experienced it. We see the failed minister, the struggling writer, the political reformer, the poetic liberator.
The Emerson of this book not only influenced Thoreau, Fuller, Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost, he also inspired Nietzsche, William James, Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Jorge Luis Borges. Emerson's timeliness is persistent and striking: his insistence that literature and science are not separate cultures, his emphasis on the worth of every individual, his respect for nature.
Richardson gives careful attention to the enormous range of Emerson's readings--from Persian poets to George Sand--and to his many friendships and personal encounters--from Mary Moody Emerson to the Cherokee chiefs in Boston--evoking both the man and the times in which he lived. Throughout this book, Emerson's unquenchable vitality reaches across the decades, and his hold on us endures.(less)

Paperback, 684 pages

Published November 6th 1996 by University of California Press (first published 1995)

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33rd out of 163 books — 31 voters

Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

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Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essays and Lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Oct 23, 2008

Michaela Wood rated it

Recommends it for: James Jandek Wood

"Emerson: A Mind on Fire" by Robert Richardson gives the intellectual journey of Ralph Waldo Emerson, from his days at Harvard, through a brief - though successful - church career, and to his celebrated radical writings - revolving a firery abolitionist, stauch idealist, and sometimes feminist, transandentalist. Emerson himself is potrayed as a fearless, good-humored, deeply interested philosopher as well as a prophetic reader. He seems wonderfully open to new information, growing his...more

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Jul 07, 2008

Tom rated it

Shelves: biography, literary-criticism

As with RR's excellent Thoreau: A Life of the Mind," this is a bio of a reader more than a chronological account of a life, and if indeed we are what we read, then RR provides a fascinating portrayal of one of the country's most important thinkers. (one small but intriguing detail: RWE often didn't finish books he was reading; rather, he claimed to have developed an ability to find what he considered most useful in a given work, and put aside the rest. That's quite liberating for any devo...moreAs with RR's excellent Thoreau: A Life of the Mind," this is a bio of a reader more than a chronological account of a life, and if indeed we are what we read, then RR provides a fascinating portrayal of one of the country's most important thinkers. (one small but intriguing detail: RWE often didn't finish books he was reading; rather, he claimed to have developed an ability to find what he considered most useful in a given work, and put aside the rest. That's quite liberating for any devoted reader who feels guilty for not finishing every book started!)

In addition to a moving account of RWE's life, RR provides an intellectual history of the century. His accounts of how ideas evolve through conversation and especially correpsondence provides an important picture of the process of public and private intellectual debate. In RR's detailed but accessible renderings, such debates become the stuff of brainy thrillers.

For all the high-powered intellect on display here, RR never loses sight of the fact that ideas don't mean much without flesh and blood people to embody them. The Prologue's opening description of RWE visiting and opening the coffin of his deceased wife Ellen is more than just a bit of gothic detail to hook the reader; rather, RR uses it to explain a central motif in RWE's work throughout his adult life -- the need for "direct, unmediated experience" as a means of "striv(ing) for an original relation to the Universe."

Though purely as a matter of personal taste for the respective figures, I preferred RR's bio of Thoreau, but in all honesty, I think the Emerson is the greater achievement. Nonetheless, I would recommend reading both. Far from repeating key points and ideas -- since T and E knew each other well -- these works complement each other very well.

Intellectual bio's just don't get any better than this.
Though I've never been particularly attracted to the work of William James, I plan on reading RR's recent bio of that man, figuring that if it's anywhere near as good as this book, it will be an equally enlightening and enjoyable read.(less)

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Apr 22, 2010

Joe rated it

This admiring biography is well worth the 600-page trek. Richardson is a scholar, but he writes with gut and has a way of keeping the narrative split in small sections to propel it forward. Perhaps he learned that from Emerson? Ralph Waldo Emerson was many things to many people. Lecturer, writer, diarist, pulpit activist and devoted family man. He met and conversed with everybody. Thoreau boarded with him. Whitman fawned over him. He corresponded with Carlyle and paid a visit to the ageing Co...more

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Aug 19, 2009

Bruce rated it

In this fine biography Richardson not only presents factual data about Emerson’s life but also explores the philosophical strands and influences that played upon him, summarizing and explicating those influences so that the reader can in turn begin to appreciate how they wove themselves into Emerson’s existing ideas to make an ever richer tapestry of thought. It is difficult not to reflect upon one’s own ideas and the process of one’s own intellectual and philosophical development in response t...moreIn this fine biography Richardson not only presents factual data about Emerson’s life but also explores the philosophical strands and influences that played upon him, summarizing and explicating those influences so that the reader can in turn begin to appreciate how they wove themselves into Emerson’s existing ideas to make an ever richer tapestry of thought. It is difficult not to reflect upon one’s own ideas and the process of one’s own intellectual and philosophical development in response to what Emerson was experiencing, even as one learns more and more about the process of his intellectual growth and the many and varying books, persons, and ideas that drove him.

Richardson has Emerson using the word “reason” in a way that initially seemed odd to me, ie to mean “intuitive graspings.” I have always thought of intuition being the opposite of reason. But Richardson goes on to say that Emerson came to accept that the highest, most trustworthy knowledge consists of intuitive graspings, moments of direct perception, then summing these up as “reason.” Richardson again: “The political trajectory of transcendentalism begins in philosophical freedom and ends in democratic individualism….Transcendentalism in general and Emersonian idealism in particular offer an alternative to utilitarian liberalism, to leader worship, and to collectivism.” For Emerson, a number of issues and convictions seem recurrently to emerge: 1) all present forms of education and religion are outdated and inadequate; 2) a person’s only truth is that which emerges from his own experience and understanding; 3) ultimately, all phenomena and ideas are part of a Universal Mind; 4) everything is constantly in a state of change. Emerson wrote, “The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself.” “The end of being is to know; and if you say, the end of knowledge is action, - why, yes, but the end of that action again, is knowledge.”

Emerson was profoundly influenced by Quakerism. “In the convergence of Quakerism and science with the Platonism and the Stoicism that already form the central stream of Emerson’s thought we can see a common principle: the crucial illumination that the spiritual is not a realm apart from the natural but is instead revealed - and alone revealed - through the natural.” Increasingly Emerson’s thought reminds me not only of Quakerism but of the Tao Te Ching (especially 15) and Zen; there are indeed common roots to so many sources of wisdom around the world, and this is akin to the Perennial Philosophy expounded by Aldous Huxley in his book with that title. For Emerson, God is communication rather than a being that communicates with us. He launched an attack on formal historical Christianity, denying personality to God because “it is too little not too much.” In its place, he offered a “gospel of the present moment, a belief not so much in pantheism as hypertheism, a declaration of the divinity of the human,”

Richardson fascinatingly explores the relationships between Emerson and his contemporaries, clarifying the influences both intellectual and artistic among them all. I found it his discussion of Emerson’s relationship with Thoreau particularly interesting, both their similarities and differences. None of his friendships was more important than that with Thoreau, and Richardson does a fine job of tracing the vicissitudes of that fascinating relationship.

Richardson does not present Emerson as a static thinker, as one who formulates a philosophy and sticks to it without modification through thick and thin. No, Emerson does change over time, but the changes tend to be ones of emphasis and nuance, his core beliefs remaining much the same, often indeed reinforced by his endless and relentless reading, thinking, lecturing, and writing as well as his fruitful and continuing conversations with the many bright and creative people in his vast circle of friends. As he aged, Emerson looked more and more to science as the source of certainties. Richardson summarizes the state of Emerson’s thought as he approached fifty years of age: “If there was less freedom in the world than appeared, there was also more order.” Indeed, although he lived for another thirty years or so, after 1850 Emerson’s thought and writing take on a more somber tone, consistent with his seeing the world more soberly and his experiencing not only national tragedies but the inevitable deaths of those closest to him. One can hardly expect his philosophical trajectory to be different from that of many others as they age, and it is interesting to learn about and reflect on Emerson’s ideas and experiences in light of one’s own. Yet there are themes from which Emerson never varied; here is Richardson speaking:

“When the storms of illusion clear, in the moments at the top of the mountain, these are the perceptions that Emerson retrains:

The days are gods. That is, everything is divine.
Creation is continuous. There is no other world; this one is all there is.
Every day is the day of judgment.
The purpose of life is individual self-cultivation, self-expression, and fulfillment.
Poetry liberates. Thought is also free.
The powers of the soul are commensurate with its needs; each new day challenges us with its adequacy and our own.
Fundamental perceptions are intuitive and inarguable; all important truths, whether of physics or ethics, must at last be self--evident.
Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm.
Life is an ecstasy; Thoreau has it right when he says, “Surely joy is the condition of life.”
Criticism and commentary, if they are not in the service of enthusiasm and ecstasy, are idle at best, destructive at worst. Your work, as Ruskin says, should be the praise of what you love.”

As the chapters of this biography draw toward an end, as Emerson’s memory and abilities decline, the reader, at least this reader of 66 years of age, experiences the poignancy if not the anguish of loss. Richardson’s work has made Emerson so alive that he has become a real person, almost a personal friend. This work is a splendid introduction to this pivotal American thinker for those unfamiliar with his writings, if there be any, and a wonderful overview for those who have read Emerson’s writings but know little about his life itself.
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Apr 27, 2010

Yesterday's Muse Bookstore rated it

Shelves: biography

This is THE biography of Emerson. Not only does it cover the complete expanse of Emerson's life and work, it accurately and unapologetically follows the development of Emerson's skills as a writer and thinker.

Many biographies adopt a perspective of adulation towards their subject, which in some cases can cloud the reality of things. Richardson maintains an objectivity that allows him to paint an accurate portrait.

In addition, Richardson's decision to approach Emerson in ...more

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May 25, 2010

Chris rated it

Richardson's main talent lies in his critical eye -- in his ability to identify the central points of Emerson's often eclectic essays, and to weave these themes into a world view that is uniform yet evolving. In addition to illuminating Emerson's published works, Richardson mines, with great care, the cavernous depth's of Emerson's journals, which were prolific in their size and organization. From a very early age, Emerson was a diligent diarist, and took care to index nearly everything he wrote...moreRichardson's main talent lies in his critical eye -- in his ability to identify the central points of Emerson's often eclectic essays, and to weave these themes into a world view that is uniform yet evolving. In addition to illuminating Emerson's published works, Richardson mines, with great care, the cavernous depth's of Emerson's journals, which were prolific in their size and organization. From a very early age, Emerson was a diligent diarist, and took care to index nearly everything he wrote, which gave Richardson endless material with which to fill in the background of his public life.

What I found most interesting in Emerson's diaries was the constant strain of insecurity and pessimism that ran through his life. Emerson's essays show a man that beams with confidence and optimism, but Richardson gives us the other side of this coin, the side that was tempted by Humean doubt, which Emerson ultimately forsook in favor of his life affirming, transcendentalist philosophy.

Emerson is perhaps the most quotable of American writers, but Richardson shows a knack for selecting the very best of his aphorisms. The book is strewn with pithy one-liners that delve to the very heart of whatever topic the book is discussing at the time. Not unlike Emerson himself, however, Richardson is careful not to take too laudatory a tone when writing about an already celebrated figure. His is not afraid to point out his shortcomings -- his personal failings and where his writing was sub-par or derivative. He does not dwell on his lesser works but makes the distinction between them and his most original and lasting writing.

My main criticism of the book is that it was obviously written for the Emerson scholar -- someone who already has extensive knowledge, rather than amateur appreciator of his writing. It glosses over the most famous events in his life under the assumption that the reader already knows about them. (For example the jailhouse encounter between Emerson and Thoreau.) In the same vein it is assumed that the reader has thorough knowledge of 19th century history. I would have preferred more context and explanation of the times in which Emerson was living in.

Nonetheless, I recommend the book to any fan of Emerson's work (as I recommend his writing to anyone who doesn't consider himself a fan. Don't let bad memories of tenth grade English deprive you of such a philosopher!) This biography will enhance and enrich your understanding of America's first great, and perhaps greatest, writer and thinker. (less)

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Jul 29, 2008

Victoria Weinstein rated it

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Recommends it for: Emerson fans

Shelves: non-fiction

This is the definitive bio on Emerson and well-deserves all the praise it has earned. A marvelous and gripping read, not to be missed by any of RWE's admirers.

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Apr 11, 2010

Sarah rated it

This book is an enlightening, enriching read, but it takes some time to get into--like the first 100 pages. Richardson's structure and writing style ingeniously echo Emerson's own reading and writing practices. The biography is made up of 100 brief chapters/essays that are organized more thematically than rigidly chronologically. Emerson felt it was important never to lose one's self and become immersed in a book. No matter how much you get caught up in any essay, it's over in 4 or 5 pages, whic...more

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Jan 15, 2010

J rated it

Let's face it. I'm never going to finish this book. Too many distractions. I should just click five stars and call it a day.

From the preface:
This book was originally planned as an intellectual biography, a companion piece to Henry Thoreau; A Life of the Mind. My approach to both Thoreau and Emerson has been to read what they read and then to relate their reading to their writing. The story, however - and it is a story - of Emerson's intellectual odyssey turned out to be inc...more

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Apr 19, 2009

H.g. Callaway rated it

If you want to know all about R.W. Emerson and can only read one intellectual biography, then this is the one to read. Especailly good on the early Emerson.

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Mar 24, 2008

Bill Dockery rated it

Recommends it for: people with an interest in the intellectual history of the 19th century.

Richardson's Emerson: The Mind on Fire is a masterful biography of the 19th century's most famous American public intellectual and philosopher. Richardson presents to the reader a man who makes idealism (in both the literal and the philosophic sense) a way of life and a justification for life. While I find the pragmatism of William James (Richardson's most recent biographical subject) much more appealing than the Transcendentalism of Emerson (and hence enjoyed reading the James bio much more), R...more

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Sep 06, 2010

Mary Jo rated it

I ordered this when two smart friends, Sandy and Elizabeth, both gave it their highest marks. But I was a bit daunted when it arrived- 684 pages! I figured I could slog through it in two years, but I'm about one fourth of the way through (in a couple of months of sporadic reading). Haven't read any in it for a few weeks -- it's obviously not a book you carry around with you all the time. But I feel the way I used to feel about Smithsonian magazine articles (and now about most anything in The New...more

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May 10, 2009

Chris rated it

Shelves: wishlist

If you have any interest in philosophy and are an individual spirit read this and anything else by Emerson.

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Sep 20, 2011

Shasta McBride rated it

This Emerson book was recommended in Paul Hawken's talk http://fora.tv/2007/06/08/Paul_Hawken_Ne... so desiring to further grasp the transcendentalists as last thorough education on Emerson was a freshmen required course (and how thorough was Emerson seeping into my 17 year old fresh from the beach mind I'm not so sure...) ...My dad stopped through LA the other day and saw the book on my table and said he was hearing all about Emerson these days, that it seemed everywhere he listened in there wa...more

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Nov 29, 2009

Jamie rated it

· review of another edition

Here is from a recent review in The Guardian

John Banville

The best book I have read this year is Emerson: The Mind on Fire by Robert D Richardson Jr (University of California Press), a superb biography of the great American philosopher and prose-poet. Richardson's scholarship is exhaustive, he writes a straightforward yet mesmeric prose, and his gift for tracing the development of Emerson's mind through apposite quotation is uncanny. This is, simply, a great book.

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Dec 16, 2010

Ken rated it

Excellent bio that brings a radiant intellect to life, and with it an era in American history.

The ending was handled so well - I don't recall another biography that packed so much emotion and poignancy into its final chapter.

My only critique (and it's a small one) is that the constant listing of what Emerson read year by year slowed down the pace. It tied in well with charting out his evolving thinking, but made for some patches of rough sledding.

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Aug 17, 2008

Erin rated it

um...if you're not obsessed with emerson's writings the way i am then this may not be the book for you, but its a good book. definitely thought provoking and gives you a little better look at what the man emerson was like. i love it.

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Oct 05, 2007

amit rated it

The best biography I've read thus far, about one of the most brilliant, passionate, and free spirited thinkers in American history.

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