Description
Book SynopsisThe Civil War is a pervasive presence in the journals in this volume. “The war searches character,” Emerson wrote. Both his reading and his writing reflected his concern for the endurance of the nation, whose strength lay in the moral strength of the people.
Trade ReviewThat the editors have been able to order this fascinating chaos is a tribute to their patience, intelligence, and skill. There will never have to be another edition. * New York Times Book Review *
No American mind stands more influentially for creativity than Emerson’s. And these lifelong records, his journals particularly, provide unique glimpses into his growth… His journalizing was literary practice, but above all, it was a heritage from the unsparing Puritan self-examination of the spirit. * Chicago Tribune *
[Emerson’s journals] make the fullness of his humanity and his understanding of the country he was living in unmistakable. By contrast the published works proclaim the various stances he was driven to assume… In the journals he is both more hard-headed and more warm-hearted. * New York Times Book Review *
What appeals in this volume is the freshness and nearness of Emerson the person. A man so reserved and scrupulous is only to be known in his private journals. That his earlier editors Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes made him less of a person is well known. This latest volume furthers the restoration of his wildness, his uncertainties, and his originality. * American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsFOREWORD TO VOLUME XV The Journals: 1860-1866 Chronology Symbols and Abbreviations PART ONE The Texts of the Journals DL GL WAR VA FOR KL PART TWO The Texts of the Miscellaneous Notebooks HT Pocket Diary 13 Pocket Diary 14 Pocket Diary 15 Pocket Diary 16 Appendix I Journals and Notebooks in the Harvard Edition Appendix II Montreal Herald Report of "Classes of Men" Textual Notes Index
