Title

Emerson : the mind on fire : a biography

Description

A portrait of Emerson drawn from newly available material, including correspondence between the Emerson brothers.

Identifier

531378

520088085

Creator

Richardson, Robert D

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1995

Program air date: August 13, 1995

Publisher

University of California Press

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Brief notes on front endpapers asks why Richardson was interested in biography, comparing Emerson's 40 page lectures to today, asking Emerson was buried in Sleepy Hollow cemetery, and noting that Emerson looked into his wife Ellen and Waldo's coffin. Notes and underlinings: Emerson viewed as "plaster sage of Concord", more lively, focus on individualism, book 8 year project, opened Ellen's coffin, died of t.b. at twenty, Trip to Europe 1832, 1821 wanted to be called Waldo, fair scholar, college age 13 or 14, graduate at 17 or 18, Harvard 250 students, Federalist Papers, Locke's Essays, Edward Everett greatest Harvard influence, Bowdoin competition essay on Socrates, Edward Channing. In college, Emerson considered himself a poet. Emerson's family background and early life, Emerson was silly. 9 years old during 1812 war, 42 year old father, Rev. William Emerson of First Church of Boston, died in 1811, RWE was 8. Mother, Ruth Hasker, religion from mother. Aunt Mary Moody Emerson educational influence, was 4'3" tall bed=coffin, wore burial shroud when traveling, poor, self-educated, her unpublished writings important to RWE. RWE graduated Harvard at 18, read Scottish philosophers including Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart. David Hume, concept of Scottish Common Sense, little place for imagination, art or literature--moral. World in 1821-1822, friends, one male, one female. Male friend Martin Gay, RWE one of 8 children within 7 year spread. RWE 1821-1823 taught, wanted to be poet, orator, minister, began journals in 1819, read a lot, William Ellery Channing, the Bible, Germans and theology. Impressed by Daniel Webster's funeral orations for John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Ellen Tucker, 16 in 1827, RWE letters to Ellen, lost. Engaged Ellen 17, RWE 25. Minister Second Church in Boston, $1200/yr., Ellen had an "episode". Sept 1829, married, Ellen died 9 am, Feb.8, 1831. RWE trip with Brother Charles to Vermont. In Boston, visited Ellen's grave daily, wrote poems to/about her, separated from church and Scottish Common Sense. Freedom frightening. 1833, Europe, not sure why, Burke, no knowledge that is not viable. Malta, Messina, reading Goethe's "Italian Journey" in German, Naples, Pompeii, Rome, letter of introduction to John Start Mill to get letter of introd. to Thomas Carlyle. Visit with Thomas and Jane Carlyle. Met Wordsworth at Rydal Mount. Lyceum movement, lectures, Quakers, after reading Hedge's manifesto, birth of American transcendentalism. 1834 lecturing/writing. Interest in biography as education--Plutarch. Proposes to Lydia Jackson, 33, RWE 32, happy marriage, meeting of minds, Lydia intellectual, called RWE Mr. Emerson, Lydia interested in spiritualism, often sick, RWE renamed her Lidian. Milton, Luther, moved beyond Unitarianism, interested in Plato, Kant, Goethe, Plutarch, Montaigne, Swedenborg, Reed, Oegger. First publication 1835, address on the history of Concord, Mass. Smoked cigars, bought moved to Coolidge Castle, renamed Bush. 1830, Concord 28 free persons of color/strong anti-slavery society. Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Peabody, Margaret Fuller--on plane with Rousseau and Goethe. 1836 Margaret Fuller 26, Emerson 33. Fuller = force--of mind and personality, high opinion of herself. Fuller and Emerson loved each other; she penetrated his emotional reserve. 1838 Thoreau, 14 years younger than RWE. Thoreau and Emerson interested in nature, walks, self-rule/autonomy. RWE less scholarly than Thoreau. Says no to Brook Farm. Individual paramount to collective. 1850s interest in Hegel. Underground Railroad. Sims affair= move to abolitionism, attacked Webster. Fugitive slave law. Entertained John Brown. Lincoln. Conduct of Life lectures 1860. Fate dark side of life. Read Marx 1853. No history, only biography. 1854 Walden published. 1854 644 reviews, did not want verbatim lecture transcriptions. Character essay. Whitman letter, supp. women's rights, against Civil War--as war for Union, met Lincoln, gave Thoreau's eulogy, law of the mind, after failure of Harvard Lecture series, went to California. Met Brigham Young, Salt Lake, met John Muir, Yosemite. After fire in home, RWE gave up lecturing. Later years, significant memory loss.

Subject

"Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882."

"Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882--Knowledge and learning."

"Authors, American--19th century--Biography."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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