Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

<b>Introduction by Mary Oliver</b><br> <b>Commentary by Henry James Robert Frost Matthew Arnold Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry David Thoreau</b> <p/> The definitive collection of Emerson's major speeches essays and poetry <i>The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson</i> chronicles the life's work of a true American Scholar. As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual emphasized independent thought and prized the splendid labyrinth of one's own perceptions. More than any writer of his time he forged a style distinct from his European predecessors and embodied and defined what it meant to be an American. Matthew Arnold called Emerson's essays the most important work done in prose. <p/> INCLUDES A MODERN LIBRARY READING GROUP GUIDE