The American transcendentalists : essential writings / edited and with an introduction by Lawrence Buell.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Buell, Lawrence.

Series:

Modern Library classics

The Modern Library classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American prose literature--New England.

American prose literature.

Transcendentalism (New England).

History.

Intellectual life.

New England--Intellectual life--19th century--Sources.

New England.

United States--Intellectual life--1783-1865--Sources.

United States.

Transcendentalism (New England)--History--Sources.

American prose literature--19th century.

Genre:

Sources.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 572 pages ; 21 cm.

Edition:

Modern Library paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Modern Library, 2006.

Summary:

Transcendentalism was the first major intellectual movement in U.S. history, championing the inherent divinity of each individual, as well as the value of collective social action. In the mid-nineteenth century, the movement took off, changing how Americans thought about religion, literature, the natural world, class distinctions, the role of women, and the existence of slavery. Edited by the eminent scholar Lawrence Buell, this comprehensive anthology contains the essential writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and their fellow visionaries. There are also reflections on the movement by Charles Dickens, Henry James, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. This remarkable volume introduces the radical innovations of a brilliant group of thinkers whose impact on religious thought, social reform, philosophy, and literature continues to reverberate in the twenty-first century.

Contents:

I Anticipations

1 Letters to a Future Transcendentalist (1817-51) / Mary Moody Emerson 3

2 Reason Versus Understanding (1825, 1829) / Samuel Taylor Coleridge 9

3 Humanity's Likeness to God (1828) / William Ellery Channing 11

4 The Age of Machinery (1829) / Thomas Carlyle 16

5 A Young Minister Refuses to Perform a Crucial Duty (1832) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 20

6 The Significance of Kantian Philosophy (1834) / Frederic Henry Hedge 23

7 Victor Cousin and the Future of American Philosophy (1838) / George Ripley 25

II Manifestos and Definitions

1 Nature (1836) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 31

2 from The Doctrine and Discipline of Human Culture (1836) / Amos Bronson Alcott 68

3 The Reconciliation of God, Humanity, State, and Church (1836) / Orestes Brownson 76

4 "The American Scholar" (1837) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 82

5 from "Transcendentalism" (1839) / Christopher Pearse Cranch 100

6 Letter of Intent to Resign (1840) / George Ripley 103

7 "The Transcendentalist" (1841) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 107

8 On Boston Transcendentalism (1842) / Charles Dickens 123

9 A Transcendentalist's Profession of Faith (1853) / Henry David Thoreau 125

III Spiritual Ferment and Religious Reform

1 Divinity School Address (1838) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 129

2 from "The New School in Literature and Religion" (1838) / Andrews Norton 146

3 God's Personhood Vindicated (1838) / Henry Ware Jr. 150

4 from A Discourse on the Latest Form of Infidelity (1839) / Andrews Norton 152

5 from "The Latest Form of Infidelity" Examined (1839) / George Ripley 155

6 Recollection of Mystical Experiences (1840) / Margaret Fuller 158

7 from A Discourse of the Transient and Permanent in Christianity (1841) / Theodore Parker 162

8 "Transcendental Bible" (1841?) / Lidian Emerson 175

9 Christianity and Hinduism Compared (1849) / Henry David Thoreau 178

10 from "The Sympathy of Religions" (1871) / Thomas Wentworth Higginson 182

IV Secular Reform

A Reform as Individual Transformation Versus Reform as Systemic Social Change

1 from "The Laboring Classes" (1840) / Orestes Brownson 193

2 Ralph Waldo Emerson Declines George Ripley's Invitation to Join Brook Farm (1840) 201

3 "Self-Reliance" (1841) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 208

4 from "Plan of the West Roxbury Community" (1842) / Elizabeth Palmer Peabody 232

5 Brook Farm's (First Published) Constitution (1844) / George Ripley et al. 235

6 from "A Sermon of Merchants" (1846) / Theodore Parker 244

7 On the Italian Revolution (1847-50) / Margaret Fuller 251

8 "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849) / Henry David Thoreau 257

B Education

1 A Controversial Experiment in Progressive Education: Part One (1835-36) / Elizabeth Peabody, Amos Bronson Alcott 281

2 A Controversial Experiment in Progressive Education: Part Two (1836-37) / Amos Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Peabody 290

C Feminism

1 A Margaret Fuller Conversation on Gender (1840) / Elizabeth Peabody (?) 297

2 from "The Great Lawsuit" (1843) / Margaret Fuller 301

D Nature and the Health of Body and Spirit

1 Why Concord? ("Musketaquid") (1843-44, 1847) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 323

2 from "Life in the Woods" (1844) / Charles Lane 327

3 from "Walking" (1850-62) / Henry David Thoreau 329

4 Two Proposals for Land Preservation (1858, 1859) / Henry David Thoreau 336

5 from "Saints, and Their Bodies" (1858) / Thomas Wentworth Higginson 338

E Antislavery

1 The Significance of British West Indian Emancipation (1844) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 347

2 On The Narrative of Frederick Douglass (1845) / Margaret Fuller 354

3 From "The Function of Conscience" (1850) and "The Fugitive Slave Law" (1851) / Theodore Parker 357

4 From "The Fugitive Slave Law" (1854) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 362

5 From "A Plea for Captain John Brown" (1859) / Henry David Thoreau 370

V Literature and the Arts

A Critical Statements

1 "The Editors to the Reader" (1840) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 383

2 Verses of the Portfolio (1840) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 388

3 From "The Poet" (1844) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 392

4 From "American Literature" (1846) / Margaret Fuller 405

5 Music Philosophically Considered (1849) / John Sullivan Dwight 410

6 From Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855) / Walt Whitman 416

B "Improvised" Prose

1 Selected "Orphic Sayings" (1840) / Amos Bronson Alcott 421

2 Report of Margaret Fuller Conversation on "Life" (1841) / Elizabeth Peabody 424

3 From "Sayings of Confucius" (1843) / Henry David Thoreau 427

4 A Walk to Walden (1843) / Nathaniel Hawthorne 429

5 First Days at Walden (1845) / Henry David Thoreau 433

C Poetry

1 / William Ellery Channing II 441

Boat Song 442

Hymn of the Earth 443

From "Wachusett" 444

2 / Christopher Pearse Cranch 445

Enosis 446

Correspondences 447

The Pines and the Sea 448

3 / Ralph Waldo Emerson 449

Each and All 450

The Problem 451

Uriel 453

The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower? 455

Hamatreya 455

The Snow-Storm 457

Ode, Inscribed to W. H. Channing 458

Bacchus 461

Hymn: Sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument, April 19, 1836 463

Brahma 464

Boston Hymn Read in Music Hall, January 1, 1863 464

Days 467

4 / Margaret Fuller 468

Meditations. Sunday, May 12, 1833 469

My Seal-Ring 471

[Each Orpheus] 472

To a Friend 472

5 Frederic Henry Hedge 473

Questionings 473

6 / Ellen Sturgis Hooper 476

[I stood upon the sullen shore] 477

[Oh melancholy liberty] 477

[One look the mother cast upon her child] 477

[I see them...] 478

[Better a sin which purposed wrong to none] 478

[To Emerson] 479

[Lo! cast upon the shoal of time] 479

7 / Henry David Thoreau 481

[Great God, I ask thee...] 482

Haze 482

[My love must be as free] 483

The Inward Morning 484

Sic Vita 485

Smoke 486

8 Jones Very 487

The New Birth 488

The Presence 489

Nature 489

The Barberry Bush 490

The Garden 490

Thy Brother's Blood 491

Yourself 491

Thy Better Self 492

9 / Walt Whitman 493

To You 494

D Narrative

1 "Leila" (1841) / Margaret Fuller 499

2 From "Ktaadn" (1848) / Henry David Thoreau 505

3 A Transcendental Childhood (1888) / Louisa May Alcott 513

VI Remembrances

1 Glimpses of Transcendental Concord (1846) / Nathaniel Hawthorne 523

2 Recollections of a Transcendentalist Insider (1852) / William Henry Channing 526

3 Emerson Observed (1855-63) / Charlotte Forten 529

4 A Dying Transcendentalist Looks Back (1859) / Theodore Parker 532

5 From "Historic Notes of Life and Letters in Massachusetts" (1867) / Ralph Waldo Emerson 538

6 From Transcendentalism in New England (1876) / Octavius Brooks Frothingham 542

7 Transcendentalism as Feminist Heresy (1895) / Caroline Wells Healey Dall 546

8 A Concord Pilgrimage (1907) / Henry James 554.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [563]-569).

ISBN:

081297509X

OCLC:

60419695