Emerson and the Conduct of Life

In Emerson and the Conduct of Life, David M. Robinson describes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s evolution from mystic to pragmatist, stressing the importance of Emerson’s undervalued later writing. Emerson’s reputation has rested on the addresses and essays of the 1830s and 1840s, in which he propounded a version of transcendental idealism, and memorably portrayed moments of mystical insight. But Emerson’s later writings suggest an increasing concern over the elusiveness of mysticism, and an increasing stress on ethical choice and practical power. These works reveal Emerson as an ethical philosopher who stressed the spiritual value of human relations, work, and social action.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most widely-studied authors on American literature courses

Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The mystic and the self-made saint; 2. Politics and ecstasy; 3. The text of experience; 4. ‘Here or nowhere’: Essays: second series; 5. The eclipse of the hero: Representative Men; 6. The old and new worlds: English Traits; 7. ‘Work is victory’: The conduct of Life; 8. ‘Plain living and high thinking’: Society and Solitude; 9. Toward a grammar of the moral life; Notes; Works cited; Index.