<b>Introduction by Mary Oliver</b><br> <b>Commentary by Henry James, Robert Frost, Matthew Arnold, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau</b><br>  <br> The definitive collection of Emerson's major speeches, essays, and poetry, <i>The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson</i> chronicles the life's work of a true “American Scholar.” As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual, emphasized independent thought, and prized “the splendid labyrinth of one's own perceptions.” More than any writer of his time, he forged a style distinct from his European predecessors and embodied and defined what it meant to be an American. Matthew Arnold called Emerson's essays “the most important work done in prose.”<br>  <br> INCLUDES A MODERN LIBRARY READING GROUP GUIDE