The Early Lectures

Ralph Waldo Emerson

ISBN 10: 0674221516 / ISBN 13: 9780674221512

Published by Harvard University Press, 1964

About this Item

Num Pages: 526 pages, 8 halftones. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 235 x 155 x 34. Weight in Grams: 1062. . 1964. Hardcover. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9780674221512

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Early Lectures
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication Date: 1964
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674221516
• ISBN 13: 9780674221512
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The notable link between Ralph Waldo Emerson’s journals and his essays is formed by the lectures that reflected his developing views on issues of his time. This second volume of a welcome edition of the early lectures follows the earlier experimental series of lectures and presents the works of Emerson the now professional lecturer who revealed to his audience central ideas and themes which later crystallized into Essays, First Series.

“The Philosophy of History,” a series of 12 lectures, explores the nature of man in his society, past and present, and singles out the individual as the center of society and history. A second series of 10 lectures on “Human Culture” begins with the duty and the right of the individual to cultivate his powers and proceeds to consider various means by which this cultivation can be accomplished. The occasional “Address on Education,” which Emerson delivered between these two series, may be seen as a link between them.

Of the twenty-three lectures in this volume, only three have been previously published. The lectures have been reproduced from Emerson’s manuscripts, approximating as nearly as possible the original version read by the author to his audience.

Review

“[T]he really striking fact about this volume is that not only is it a volume that will satisfy the scholar, it also is a volume that every layman who is at all interested in Emerson will want to read.”―Chicago Sunday Tribune

“The task of editing these pieces [the lectures] for publication has been performed not only with scholarly care and thoroughness but with commendable taste and an eye to the needs of the ordinary literature reader as well as of the special scholar. A general introduction supplies just the amount of information about Emerson’s beginnings as a lyceum speaker that is required, and there are brief and useful introductions to the separate parts. The result is a really important addition to the corpus of Emerson’s works. No reader who cares seriously for the greatest of our wisdom-writers will wish to be without it... There is hardly a page of this volume, however, that is without an interest, and often an extreme interest, for the reader of Emerson.”―New York Times