"An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man," Ralph Waldo
Emerson once wrote--and in this book, the leading scholar of New
England literary culture looks at the long shadow Emerson himself
has cast, and at his role and significance as a truly American
institution. On the occasion of Emerson's 200th birthday, Lawrence
Buell revisits the life of the nation's first public intellectual
and discovers how he became a "representative man."
Born into the age of inspired amateurism that emerged from the
ruins of pre-revolutionary political, religious, and cultural
institutions, Emerson took up the challenge of thinking about the
role of the United States alone and in the world. With
characteristic authority and grace, Buell conveys both the style
and substance of Emerson's accomplishment--in his conception of
America as the transplantation of Englishness into the new world,
and in his prodigious work as writer, religious thinker, and
philosopher. Here we see clearly the paradoxical key to his
success, the fierce insistence on independence that acted so
magnetically upon all around him. Steeped in Emerson's writings,
and in the life and lore of the America of his day, Buell's book is
as individual--and as compelling--as its subject. At a time when
Americans and non-Americans alike are struggling to understand what
this country is, and what it is about, "Emerson" gives us an answer
in the figure of this representative American, an American for all,
and for all times.
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