Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume XVI: 1866-1882

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald A. Bosco, Glen M. Johnson

Overview

The final volume of the Harvard edition presents the journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s last years. In them, he reacts to the changing America of the post–Civil War years, commenting on Reconstruction, immigration, protectionism in trade, and the dangers of huge fortunes in few hands—as well as on baseball and the possibilities of air travel. His role as a Harvard Overseer evokes his thoughts on education during crucial years of reform in American universities.

His travels take him to Europe for the third time, and for the first time he encounters the new garden of California and the enigma of Egypt. He continues to lecture, and a second volume of poems and two more collections of essays, culled from his manuscripts, are published. Finally, his late journals show Emerson confronting his loss of creative vigor, husbanding his powers, and maintaining his equanimity in the face of decline.

This concluding volume thus gives a complex picture of Emerson in his last sixteen years, facing old age but still the advocate of “newness” throughout the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674484795
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	12/08/1982
Series:	Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson Series
Pages:	632
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Ronald A. Bosco, Distinguished Professor of English and American Literature at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is General Editor of the Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Glen M. Johnson is Professor of English, The Catholic University of America.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD TO VOLUME XVI

The Journals: 1866-1882

Chronology

Symbols and Abbreviations

PART ONE

The Texts of the Journals

LN

NY

ST

PART TWO

The Texts of the Miscellaneous Notebooks

Books Large

Pocket Diary 17

Pocket Diary 18

Pocket Diary 19

Pocket Diary 20

Pocket Diary 21

Pocket Diary 22

Pocket Diary 23

Pocket Diary 24

Pocket Diary 25

Pocket Diary 26

Pocket Diary 27

Pocket Diary 28

Pocket Diary 29

Pocket Diary 30

Pocket Diary 31

Appendix I Journals and Notebooks in the Harvard Edition

Appendix II Author and Title Entries in Notebook Books Large

Textual Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

That the editors have been able to order this fascinating chaos is a tribute to their patience, intelligence, and skill. There will never have to be another edition.

New York Times Book Review

No American mind stands more influentially for creativity than Emerson’s. And these lifelong records, his journals particularly, provide unique glimpses into his growth… His journalizing was literary practice, but above all, it was a heritage from the unsparing Puritan self-examination of the spirit.

Chicago Tribune

What appeals in this volume is the freshness and nearness of Emerson the person. A man so reserved and scrupulous is only to be known in his private journals. That his earlier editors Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes made him less of a person is well known. This latest volume furthers the restoration of his wildness, his uncertainties, and his originality.

American Historical Review

No American mind stands more influentially for creativity than Emerson’s. And these lifelong records, his journals particularly, provide unique glimpses into his growth… His journalizing was literary practice, but above all, it was a heritage from the unsparing Puritan self-examination of the spirit.

Chicago Tribune

That the editors have been able to order this fascinating chaos is a tribute to their patience, intelligence, and skill. There will never have to be another edition.

New York Times Rook Review

[Emerson's journals] make the fullness of his humanity and his understanding of the country he was living in unmistakable. By contrast the published works proclaim the various stances he was driven to assume...In the journals he is both more hard-headed and more warm-hearted.

From the Publisher