The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Writings »

“A guided anthology that takes the reader through Emerson’s own spiritual evolution.” —Robert D. Richardson, Jr., author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) is known best in the twenty-first century as a literary innovator and early architect of American intellectual culture, but his writings still offer spiritual sustenance to the thoughtful reader. The Spiritual Emerson, originally published on the two hundredth anniversary of the writer’s birth, brings together the writings that articulate Emerson’s spiritual vision and promise the greatest relevance to today’s reader.

“It is a great service of this book that it traces [Emerson’s] spiritual development . . . [It] is also valuable in establishing the full texture and subtlety of Emerson’s much-misunderstood notion of self-reliance and nonconformity.” —Richard Higgins, Boston Globe

“This collection brings together for the first time Emerson’s most important writings on spiritual themes, along with a discerning and eminently readable introduction by one of the foremost authorities on Emerson’s religious thought.” —Lawrence Buell, Harvard University, author of Literary Transcendentalism and Emerson