The Spiritual Emerson Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson

This concise volume collects the core writings that have made Ralph Waldo Emerson into a key source of insight for spiritual seekers of every faith—with an introduction by the bestselling philosopher Jacob Needleman. Here is the essential collection of Emerson’s spiritual thought for those readers who understand the transformative quality of ideas. It is concise and suited to years of rereading and contemplation, offering the essays that trace the arc of the inner message brought by America’s Yankee Mystic.” The Spiritual Emersonfeatures many of Emerson’s landmark works. Yet also included are overlooked classics, such as the essays Fate” and Success,” which served as major sources of inspiration to some of the leading American metaphysical thinkers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The introduction by religious scholar and philosopher Jacob Needleman frames—historically and philosophically—the development of Emerson’s thought and explores why it has such a powerful hold on us today.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1836, Emerson co-founded the Transcendental Club and published his book-length essay -ôNature,-ö which is often considered a major milestone in the Transcendentalist movement. One of the most revered figures in the history of American letters, Emerson died in 1882.

The acclaimed author of Why Can-'t We Be Good?, The American Soul, and Money and the Meaning of Life, Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University.