Emerson: The Mind on Fire

by Robert D. Richardson Jr.

Book Overview

Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord. Drawing on a vast amount of new material, including correspondence...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520206894
• ISBN13: 9780520206892
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 684 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

When the genius of biography meets the genius of literature

Mr. Richardson's 'Thoreau A Life of the Mind' was not only the best biography I've read on Thoreau, but one of the most exhilerating and enlightening reading experiences of my life. So I decided to read his 'Emerson The Mind on Fire.' And it was every bit as intimate and intelligent. There are times you feel that you're intruding upon Waldo and Henry on one of their walks. It was an endless stroll of two intellectuals and humanists on the path of being very human. Each of the one hundred chapters (both books) are kept short, which helps move the reader from topic to topic without ever feeling put upon (too much detail can drag what is otherwise very interesting.) Though, for me personally, I would love to savor every moment these two great men shared. I don't think I could ever get bored. Emerson has many close friends with whom one gets to know intimately. His personal address book was a whose whose of literary and intellectual greats. The relationship between Emerson and his second wife, Lidian, is of great interest. She was also intellectual and as much a partner in life as she was a wife. Her presence is everywhere in Emerson's life. Emerson's essays are pure poetry. And the behind the scene snippets into how they became a part of his legacy was both insightful and relevant to the day to day interactions and causes he committed himself. His transformation from the unremarkable child into the neverending 'student' of self-education and commitment to social conscience throughout his entire adult life is one to be admired. Mr. Richardson is one of the best biographers of nineteenth century literaries. He is truly one with his topic.

A revelation of the man.

Once I started reading this book I could not stop for very long. It was so good I did not want it to end. This book traces Emerson's intellectual and spiritual path in such great detail that it enables the reader to further investigate Emerson's sources if he or she so chooses. The biographical information was quite complete as well. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Emerson or Transcendentalism. I noticed that Richardson has also written a biography of Thoreau and I will likely read it. This book represents a very high degree of scholarship and a great effort on the part of the author. I also greatly appreciated the photos of Emerson and the people close to him. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a few more photos of his second wife and his children. I would have also liked to have learned how his wife managed after Emerson died and perhaps some information regarding his descendants. However, these are my own personal preferences and are in no way meant to diminish the excellence of this book. The material is well structured into about 100 brief chapters which I thought made the reading easy. I never felt bogged down due to the length of the book. This is not a short book. I really came away from the book with a sense of the man and an appreciation of the events and societal pressures of his time. After reading this book I think anyone familiar with Emerson's writings would feel like sitting down with the man to have a discussion to clear up a point or two.

Outstanding biography of America's first literary giant

I must confess that I don't understand the reader review below who found this biography of Emerson to be a difficult read. Although not quite a page-turner, I managed to read this in very little time at all. I must also confess that I do find Emerson himself incredibly difficult to read. But what I find to be the case in Emerson himself, I did not find to be true in Richardson's biography. While I find that Emerson constructed one stunning sentence and aphorism after another, I generally find his essays to be slow going. Nonetheless, while I am not his biggest fan, he is unquestionably one of the four or five greatest figures in American intellectual history, and Richardson's biography does him great justice.The great merit of this biography is that at the end of it, you feel that you have gained considerable insight both into Emerson and New England intellectual life in the 19th century. I was especially intrigued with Richardson detailing of Emerson's reading. Emerson was, without any question, a great reader. Great readers rarely read books from cover to cover. Samuel Johnson, who was himself one of the most accomplished readers in the history of civilization, once said that we have more of a need to reread than to read. But he also once quipped, "What, you read books all the way to the end?" Emerson did not read books all the way to the end. But like Johnson and other great readers, he had a genius for picking out the most important points. What Boswell wrote of Johnson is true also of Emerson: "He had a peculiar facility in seizing at once what was valuable in any book, without submitting to the labour of perusing it from beginning to end."One comes away from the book also enormously impressed with Emerson's character. He seems by any standard to have been a remarkably good human being. He was both a man of high principle, and a man of powerful attachments to other human beings. I found the accounting of his various friendships, many to equally famous individuals, to be of the utmost interest. Also, he seems to have met virtually every important thinker and writer in the English-speaking world, from Coleridge to Carlyle to Melville.I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a deeper knowledge of Emerson's life and work. By any standard, Emerson is one of the giants in American life. His influence on American thought is incalculable. Consider: not only was he the major influence on such American literary figures the magnitude of Thoreau and Whitman; he was a profound influence on artists such as Thomas Cole, Moran, and Bierstadt. America's deep-rooted environmentalism is steeped in Emersonian Transcendentalism. John Muir was a devoted reader of Emerson. One could make a case for Emerson having had perhaps more influence in the shaping of American thought than any other individual. This biography is an outstanding introduction to that person.

Remarkable biography

A remarkable biography of an enduring genius in American history.'Emerson: The Mind on Fire', is a reading experience that was at once moving, educationally rewarding and, above all, inspiring. The book is a well- crafted, well- researched analysis of 'the' American philosopher of the 19th century. After completing the work, I felt as though I knew the great man intimately, and found myself feeling sad that he wasn't in the phone book or had an email address to invite him and his family over for dinner. As Thoreau once wrote, "Surely joy is the condition of life." And this is most certainly the leading emotion that I felt while reading this book. And as Emerson wrote: "The purpose of life is individual cultivation, self expression, and fulfillment." At the risk of sounding too praiseworthy, Richardson's commendable biography has given me the opportunity to experience all three of the above. Since a freshman in highschool, my predelication to Transcedentalism has moved in and out of my life like a warm breeze. This particular work has re-lit this old philosophical spark,causing the winds to rise again, so to speak, creating a kind of intellectual excitment. I have read hundreds of biographies on many great individuals, but this one ranks as one of the best. I recommend this book highly.

Emerson opens the mind like no other.

Richardson has given us a profound biography of one of the world's most profound men. And in this case, I'm almost as impressed with the biographer as the man he reports. This book has 100 chapters, each one as full of outstanding ideas as some entire books I've read. I owe many wonderful evenings and mornings to Richardson who has given me the keenest insights into my favorite teacher and author. Richardson so accurately portrays Emerson's journey of a self-realized soul marching in his conviction of the final authority of the individual Self, that at times I felt I was making the same journey myself. In so many moments, something swelled within me while reading this book, and I thought perhaps even such a one as myself might grasp these elevated concepts Richardson so lucidly explains. Emerson himself said, "only that book is good which puts the reader in a working mood." While reading this book I have felt encouraged in my quest to do the work of unfolding my own nature with reverential awe--as Emerson admonishes us--by keeping a journal and studying to unify myself with the eternity at the core of my being. Richardson not only studied Emerson to write this book, he studied the books that Emerson studied, thereby showing Emerson's method, intellectual origins, and native genius that courageously broke with contemporary traditions to create a cohesive world-view so inspirational to many. Emerson, more than any other author I have read, believed in the grandeur of the soul--not just his own--but in each of us. He wrote in his journal, "When I look at the rainbow I find myself the center of its arch. But so are you; and so is the man who sees it a mile from both of us. So also the globe is round, and every man therefore stands on the top. King George, and the chimney sweep no less." If you are looking for a book to not only stretch your limits of understanding but help you realize the helping hand at the end of your own arm, enlighten yourself by studying Emerson with Richardson. You might also consider spending the extra few dollars and get the hardback . It'll last a lot longer under the wear you'll give it referring to it again and again.