Understanding Emerson : "The American Scholar" and His Struggle for Self-Reliance

Rating:
Summary: The American Oracle finds his voice
Review: In the 1830s, the new movement of Transcendentalism was flowering in New England, and coming into conflict with established Unitarianism. Abolitionism was coming to political life. Old friendships among Boston's upper-classes were strained, and new alliances forged, as the times shifted. These long-extinct controversies are minutely chronicled here, with the end of showing how formative they were on Ralph Waldo Emerson. This book tells how Emerson found his place in this flood of events.

I chiefly know Emerson as an aphorist, so it was mildly surprising to read how his contemporaries viewed his Lyceum lectures in much the same light. "A poet, not a philosopher" is the general reaction to his early sallies. Emerson was first-rate, from a family of first-rate men, and everyone knew it. His intellectual promise was generally conceded, but his offerings were faulted for lacking in coherence, notable mostly for brilliant _bon mots_. Emerson reproaches himself in his journals for not tackling the big issues of the day. When things finally click in his mind and he produces _The American Scholar_, the impracticality of its prescriptions is not diminished by its ringing tones.

Yet I suspect that Emerson's slipperiness contributed to his works' staying power. If he had constructed a tidy, interlaced, balanced philosophical system, then he would have been comprehended, absorbed, and done with long ago. But as his best sentences urge the reader on, rather than drawing a map, they continue to inspire down to this day. "Hitch your wagon to a star", indeed.

The book is valuable for introducing the reader to the Bostonian intelligentsia of the 1820s and 1830s, and for reproducing this stage in Emerson's career. Even Thomas Carlyle makes a cameo appearance, as Emerson's moral and financial support helps establish the Scot's reputation in the U.S. I learned a lot--and will probably learn a lot more if I make time to re-read this book. It's the sort of work that makes you want to go and study up, so that you can come back and tackle it again; it's that good.

Rating:
Summary: The American Oracle finds his voice
Review: In the 1830s, the new movement of Transcendentalism was flowering in New England, and coming into conflict with established Unitarianism. Abolitionism was coming to political life. Old friendships among Boston's upper-classes were strained, and new alliances forged, as the times shifted. These long-extinct controversies are minutely chronicled here, with the end of showing how formative they were on Ralph Waldo Emerson. This book tells how Emerson found his place in this flood of events.

I chiefly know Emerson as an aphorist, so it was mildly surprising to read how his contemporaries viewed his Lyceum lectures in much the same light. "A poet, not a philosopher" is the general reaction to his early sallies. Emerson was first-rate, from a family of first-rate men, and everyone knew it. His intellectual promise was generally conceded, but his offerings were faulted for lacking in coherence, notable mostly for brilliant _bon mots_. Emerson reproaches himself in his journals for not tackling the big issues of the day. When things finally click in his mind and he produces _The American Scholar_, the impracticality of its prescriptions is not diminished by its ringing tones.

Yet I suspect that Emerson's slipperiness contributed to his works' staying power. If he had constructed a tidy, interlaced, balanced philosophical system, then he would have been comprehended, absorbed, and done with long ago. But as his best sentences urge the reader on, rather than drawing a map, they continue to inspire down to this day. "Hitch your wagon to a star", indeed.

The book is valuable for introducing the reader to the Bostonian intelligentsia of the 1820s and 1830s, and for reproducing this stage in Emerson's career. Even Thomas Carlyle makes a cameo appearance, as Emerson's moral and financial support helps establish the Scot's reputation in the U.S. I learned a lot--and will probably learn a lot more if I make time to re-read this book. It's the sort of work that makes you want to go and study up, so that you can come back and tackle it again; it's that good.