The Portable Emerson

This volume, edited by Carl Bode in collaboration with Malcolm Cowley, presents the essential Emerson, selected from works that eloquently express the philosophy of a worldly idealist. The Portable Emerson comprises essays, including “History,” “Self-Reliance,” “The Over-Soul,” “Circles,” and “The Poet”; Emerson’s first book, Nature, in its entirety; twenty-two poems, including “Uriel,” “The Humble-Bee,” and “Give All to Love”; orations, including “The American Scholar,” “The Fugitive Slave Law,” and “John Brown”; English Traits, complete; and biographical essays on Plato, Napoleon, Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Carlyle, and others.

Herman Melville said that Ralph Waldo Emerson possessed a "self-conceit so intensely intellectual that at first one hesitates to call it by its right name," though he later admitted Emerson was "a great man." Both were probably true. The Sage of Concord gave more than 1500 speeches in his lifetime, and Self-Reliance is probably his most important work.

Malcolm Cowley, one of America's best-known literary critics, was literary editor of the "New"" Republic"" "from 1929 to 1940. Among his many books are "Exile's Return,"" After the Genteel Tradition,"" "and, most recently, "The Faulkner-Cowley File."
Henry Dan Piper is Profes-sor of English at Southern Illinois University. His most recent book is "F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Critical Portrait."


Carl Bode is Professor of English at the University of Maryland. Among his other books on American cultural and literary history are "Antebellum Culture,"" The American Lyceum,"" "and the recent bestseller, "Mencken."


Carl Bode is Professor of English at the University of Maryland. Among his other books on American cultural and literary history are "Antebellum Culture,"" The American Lyceum,"" "and the recent bestseller, "Mencken."


Malcolm Cowley, one of America's best-known literary critics, was literary editor of the "New"" Republic"" "from 1929 to 1940. Among his many books are "Exile's Return,"" After the Genteel Tradition,"" "and, most recently, "The Faulkner-Cowley File."
Henry Dan Piper is Profes-sor of English at Southern Illinois University. His most recent book is "F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Critical Portrait."