By Maurice York and Rick Spaulding
Paperback, 6"x9", 276 pages
ISBN 9780980119008

PREVIEW the full text of this book in Google Book Search

Emerson once wrote that the times we are born in are the best of times, if only we know what to do with them. His life spanned the crucial years of the nation's youth-the first tests of its shop-new Constitution; the explosive expansion into the untamed West; the great conflagration of the Civil War and the destruction of slavery; and the pains of rebirth and reconciliation that carried the United States to the eve of emerging as a world power. In the midst of this swirl of upheaval and change, Emerson turned his attention inward to the citizen, the individual, who must find his or her own inmost truth and bring that one fact of being to perfect expression in the world-must learn to believe the faintest presentiment of the self against the testimony of all history. As a lecturer and essayist, Emerson was a catalyst who sought through his daily work to wake the long-slumbering soul of the farmer, mechanic, businessman, politician-to show the common person that the divine and extraordinary are present in every hour of the day. His efforts triggered a cultural tidal wave, inspiring a generation of authors, poets, teachers, and social activists who built the very foundations of culture in America. This biography takes a fresh look at Emerson through his Journals to trace the story of his own self-development, and the hidden life's work that makes him as relevant to our time as to his own.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
PROLOGUE: THE SAGE OF CONCORD
I. ANCESTRAL VOICE
II. ORDEALS OF SOUL
     The Hollowness of Academia
     I Love My Wide Worlds
     The Selfishness that Chills
III. TRIUMPH OF THE GOD OF FIRE
     The Dupe of Hope
     The Specter of Weakness and Decay
     The Family Calling
IV. HITCH YOUR WAGON TO A STAR
     Crossing the Water
     Awake, Thou Godlike that Sleepest!
     Man-Lecturing
V. THE TRANSCENDENTALIST
     The Siege of the Hencoop
     The Fall of the Morning Star
     Serving the Concord Circle
VI. TO THE MOUNTAINTOP
     The Uses of Great Men
     A Whip for my Top
     The Reluctant Abolitionist
VII. SOMETHING LESS THAN MY BEST TASK
     England, England, England
     The Poet Arrives
     A Beeline to an Axe
VIII. A NEW POWER OF VISION
     The War-Note
     The Deeds of the Hero
     The Window of Opportunity
IX. THE MASTERWORK
     Return to Harvard
     The Constitution of Man
     Its Most Illustrious Halo
Genealogy
Chronology
Selected Bibliography
Notes