LECTURES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1885. The Riverside Edition, New and Revised. 8vo, in very handsome contemporary three-quarter plum calf over handsomely marbled boards, the spine with gilt framed compartments separated by gilt-tooled raised bands, four of the compartments with very fine gilt tooling in an acorns with leaves and vines motif, two compartments morocco labels gilt ruled and lettered, additional gilt a the spine's head and tail, endpapers and page edges all attractively marbled. 463 pp. Very handsome, internally near as new, the paper extremely fresh with no foxing, signs of wear or use; the binding is very attractive, strong and firm with no cracking, the plum calf of the spine uniformly mellowed slightly to a pleasant lighter tone. EMERSON'S LECTURES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, important works from the founder of the transcendental movement. There are few people as quoted and quotable as Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES include one of his fellow-founders of Transcendentalism, Henry David Thoreau, who Emerson viewed as a disciple, factotum, personal healer, and closest of friends. Another is of Ezra Ripley, a minister of Concord's First Parish Church and one time resident of the 'Old Manse' in Concord. Emerson's aunt, Mary Moody Emerson is profiled, he called her his "earliest and best teacher", and a "spirited and original genius in her own right". He considered her presence in his life a “blessing which nothing else in education could supply.” An important Massachusetts political figure is included, Samuel Hoar, whose anti-slavory efforts made him a personal hero of Emerson's. Friend and fellow essayist Thomas Carlyle, who Emerson had met during his study of "English Traits", is also included.
The LECTURES here published are comprised of Demonology, Aristocracy, Perpetual Forces, Character, Education, The Superlative, The Sovereignty of Ethics, The Preacher, The Man of Letters, The Scholar, Plutarch, Historic Notes of Life and Letters in New England, and The Chardon Street Convention. Emerson was one of America's first traveling lecturers. In fact, it is widely believed he was the first American author to receive payment for delivering a public talk, five dollars and enough oats to feed his horse.