Chapter Ralph Waldo Emerson of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

He liberalized thought in America. His crisp sayings are everywhere quoted. Whatever of substantial value is discoverable in the various schemes of the "new thought" of to-day is pretty sure to go back to Emerson as its proper source. His ideas are current wherever men think seriously of life. Perhaps his greatest service to literature was the stimulus and encouragement which he gave to the youth of his own generation who followed so closely in his steps. Hawthorne came under his influence; he was the direct inspiration of Whitman; Longfellow, Holmes, and Lowell felt the immediate power of his message; and, together with Emerson, these were the men who largely determined the character of American literature in the nineteenth century, and gave it such distinction as it has.

Suggestions for Reading.

Of Emerson's prose, the following essays are especially recommended: Self-Reliance, Compensation, Books (in Society and Solitude); the address, The American Scholar, should certainly be read and the ideas characteristic of the writer be noted. In the same way parts of the first Nature should be considered. The student will find in English Traits an interesting account of Emerson's visits with Wordsworth and Carlyle. Among the poems, some should be compared with those of Bryant's which have been read. These are particularly such nature poems as The River, The Rhodora, The Humble-Bee, The Snow- Storm, Musketaquid, My Garden, The Titmouse, and Woodnotes I and II. More directly suggestive of the poet's transcendental utterances are: The Apology, Each and All, The Problem, The Sphinx, The Informing Spirit, Experience, Hamatreya, Nature (two versions, 1844, 1849), Days, and Brahma. The Concord Hymn, Boston Hymn, and Voluntaries are in a group by themselves, inspired by events. Threnody and Terminus are poems of experience.

The authoritative editions of Emerson's Works are those published by Houghton Mifflin Company. The authorized biography is the Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by J. B. Cabot (2 vols.). The volume on Emerson in the American Men of Letters Series is by Oliver Wendell Holmes; that in the English Men of Letters Series (the most recent biography) is by George E. Woodberry. Sketches and criticisms are almost numberless; it is best to mention few. The student, therefore, is referred only to the following titles: Emerson in Concord, by E. W. Emerson (son of R. W.); Concord Days, by A. Bronson Alcott, and the same author's Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Estimate of his Character and Genius; G. B. Bartlett's Concord; H. E. Scudder's Men and Letters, and E. P. Whipple's Recollections of Eminent Men. Both Lowell and George W. Curtis have delightful essays upon Emerson Lecturing, the former in Literary Essays, the latter in The Easy Chair. There is also a light sketch of Emerson (principally of Concord) in Curtis's Literary and Social Essays. An English estimate, most appreciative, is to be found in Four Great Teachers, by Joseph Forster. An excellent account of the communistic experiment in Roxbury is Brook Farm, by Lindsay Swift (in National Studies in American Letters).