Ralph Emerson

Philosopher John Dewey called Ralph Waldo Emerson "the one citizen of the New World fit to have his name uttered in the same breath with that of Plato."Through his writing and his own personal philosophy, Emerson unburdened his young country of Europe's traditional sense of history and showed Americans how to be creators of their own contexts. With his central text, Nature, he singlehandedly engendered an entire spiritual and intellectual movement in Transcendentalism.Editor Jeffrey S. Cramer has chosen texts like Nature and The American Scholar, along with revelatory journal entries, letters and poetry revealing a stirringly human writer.

Originally published anonymously, Nature was the first modern essay to recommend the appreciation of the outdoors as an all-encompassing positive force. Emerson’s writings were recognized as uniquely American in style and content, and launched the idea of going for a walk as a new way of looking at the world. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.