The Annotated Emerson

It's really just a coffee table book. It's way too big to read unless you are studying it at a desk, and even then, its size is unwieldy.The notes are obsessively focused on locating the similarities between some phrase in an essay and another phrase in the journals or other writings. I fail to find it at all illuminating to learn that Emerson's use of a word like "prodigal" echoes the same use of that word in an essay by Madame de Stael, and it only annoys me when I interrupt the reading to go to the note and find that kind of thing, over and over and over. Yet difficult passages that are truly perplexing are left alone.The book is loaded with full-page portraits and photographs, like one for example of Martin Van Buren, which I feel takes up space that could have been more usefully used. The introductory essays are good but not indispensible. I have found little in the notes that reflects Emerson scholarship past the mining of the journals for sources. There has been so much great work done on Emerson but it's not reflected in the annotations. And despite what some commenters have said here, the book is missing a great many important essays. That's fine, the editorial decisions made here are totally defensible, but when commenters say this is the only Emerson book you will ever need, I have to disagree. The Norton Critical Edition for example contains far more material, lots of very interesting critical material, and it's easy to hold and read, all of which are significant advantages over this edition. The Library of America edition is a little harder to read than the Norton owing to size, typeface, and paper thickness, but it is a much more thorough collection. If I could only have one Emerson book, it would easily be one of those over this thing. This is designed to be set out on the coffee table more than to be read. I actually think Emerson would recoil at seeing it.That said, it's fun to thumb through. It's not terrible and if you are an Emerson fan you should probably get it. Just don't expect it to fill the normal needs of a book of essays, and don't select it as your one book of Emerson.

Thank you David Mikics and Harvard University Press. It's only been a few days, but I can't help thinking that this book had to have been born from a labor of love and that the current offer to sell it for a mere $22 on amazon makes it more of a gift to the world than a transaction. In Buddhism there is the idea that the dharma should be given freely. I can't help but think of you folks in that light... spreading the dharma of Emerson. Thank you.Anyone who loves Emerson should love this book. The selection of material is well chosen and the annotations are great. Besides helping the reader understand some of the references Emerson used in his writing, references that readers like me might otherwise skip over, there are also plenty of pictures that help one imagine Emerson's world.. what it might have been like walking in his shoes. The pages are luxuriously large (9.5 high by 9 wide) and the text large enough and un-cramped. As a previous reviewer observed, there's plenty of room on the pages to take your own notes and the author's notes all appear on the same page as they're referenced from, so no flipping back and forth. All in all, just a pleasure to read.I own various collections of Emerson works. This is sure to be one of my favorites. I look forward to many happy years with The Annotated Emerson. Heck, I might even come to appreciate a poem or two... something no other collection has coaxed me to do. This book is truly a gift to the world. Thank you David and HUP!Table of Contents:Foreword: The Undisguised Emerson, by Phillip LopateChronologyAbbreviationsIntroductionNature (1836)The American Scholar (1837)Letter to Martin Van Buren, President of the United States, Concord, Mass., April 23, 1838The Divinity School Address (1838)Literary Ethics (1838)From Essays, First Series (1841): History Self-Reliance CirclesFrom Essays, Second Series (1844): The Poet Experience Politics Nominalist and Realist New England ReformersAn Address ... on ... the Anniversary of the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West Indies (1844)From Representative Men (1850): Montaigne; or, the Skeptic Shakspeare; or, the PoetFrom English Traits (1856): First Visit to England StonehengeJohn Brown (1860)From The Conduct of Life (1860): Fate Power IllusionsFrom Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1852)Thoreau (1862)From Poems (1845): The Sphinx Uriel The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower? The Snow-Storm Ode, Inscribed to W.H. Channing Merlin (I) Merlin (II) Bacchus Concord Hymn, Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837From May-Day and Other Pieces (1867): Hafiz The Exile (From the Persian of Kermani) From Hafiz [They say, through patience, chalk] Song of Seid Nimetollah of KuhistanAcknowledgmentsCredits