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Nature/ Essays
8.5Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson's Nature and Essays are the founding documents of American Transcendentalism — the intellectual declaration of independence that made an American literature possible.
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ISBN 9780142437629Public-domain editions also available free — see below.
Summary & Critical Assessment (Score: 8.5/10)
Nature and Essays represent the founding documents of American Transcendentalism and the intellectual declaration of independence for American thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson's vision of the individual's direct relationship to nature and spirit laid the philosophical groundwork for an entire tradition of American self-reliance, nonconformity, and democratic individualism that continues to shape the national character.
First appearing in the era of Jacksonian expansion and frontier populism, Emerson's essays emerged after he left the Unitarian ministry and traveled to meet Carlyle, Coleridge, and Wordsworth. His influence extends far beyond literature: Gandhi credited Emerson with shaping his philosophy of civil disobedience, the counterculture of the 1960s drew on his radical individualism, and the modern environmental movement traces its origins to his reverence for the natural world. "Self-Reliance" remains the most widely excerpted American essay ever written.
United States, 1836-1841
Jacksonian America: expansion, populism, the frontier. Emerson has left the Unitarian ministry and traveled to meet Carlyle, Coleridge, and Wordsworth. Nature appears the year before the Panic of 1837. The railroad age is beginning. The Second Great Awakening transforms American religion. Texas declares independence from Mexico. American Transcendentalism emerges as the first distinctly American philosophical movement. By 1841, Emerson publishes Essays: First Series, containing "Self-Reliance," "The Over-Soul," and "Circles." Brook Farm commune is founded. The first issue of The Dial appears, edited by Margaret Fuller. Thoreau moves in with the Emersons. American literature is finding its own voice, distinct from British models.
Awards & Adaptations
Foundation text of American philosophy. Continuously in print. Influenced Gandhi, the counterculture, environmentalism. Core at Harvard, St. John's, Columbia. "Self-Reliance" is the most widely excerpted American essay. Influenced Nietzsche, William James, Dewey, Gandhi, MLK, the Beat Generation, Silicon Valley's self-reliance ethos. Core reading at every Great Books program.
Recommended Edition
First edition (1836); Library of America: Essays and Lectures (1983); Penguin Classics (2003)
