Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in sentences built to be remembered. This collection of his essays brings together the reflections that made him the presiding voice of American Transcendentalism and one of the most quoted writers in the language.

What it's about

The essays range across the great themes Emerson returned to throughout his life: the authority of the individual conscience, the workings of nature and the spirit, friendship, character, and the conduct of life. Written to be delivered and pondered rather than merely skimmed, each builds by insight and image toward a bracing central conviction.

Themes

Self-reliance, nonconformity, the divinity of the individual soul, and the inadequacy of borrowed opinion run through the whole. Emerson urges his readers to trust themselves and to seek an original relation to the world rather than to imitate the past.

Why it still matters

Emerson's essays shaped American literature and thought and continue to be read for their startling confidence and their invitation to think freely. Their call to intellectual independence speaks as directly now as it did to their first audience.

Who it's for

Readers of philosophy and American literature, seekers of intellectual encouragement, and anyone who wants prose that rewards being read slowly and returned to often.