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Arthur S. Lothstein and Michael Brodrick (Eds.) New Morning: Emerson in the Twenty-first Century Albany: State University of New York (SUNY) Press, 2008. xv + 218 pp. Index.
This timely anthology contains five pieces of republished poetry (and one original poem) and eleven essays of varying length taking mostly contemporary stances on-and thus hoping to spur the on-going reception into the twenty-first century of-the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The assortment of the texts is heterogeneous, yet showing a slight philosophical emphasis: among the eleven essays, half a dozen are by authors trained in philosophy, a couple by literary scholars, and another couple by poets. The prose pieces are previously unpublished, excluding the classical essays by Robert C. Pollock (published originally in 1958) and John J. McDermott (1980), as well as John Lysaker's thought-provoking meditation "Taking Emerson Personally" (2004), and Mary Oliver's "Emerson: An Introduction" (2000). Unfortunately, the book makes no mention of the original details of publication of these pieces, which makes the edition- in addition to the fact that the weighty philosophical pieces have been previously published-somewhat less valuable for scholarly use.
As one might expect of an anthology such as this, the variety of topics and perspectives into the life work of the covered author is broad, and one of the particular merits of the collection is its engaging not only Emerson the philosopher but also Emerson the political activist. The collection begins in the philosophical register, with important essays discussing Emerson's philosophical thrust (Pollock), and his influence on the classical American philosophers from Royce to Dewey (McDermott). Emerson's engagement in the political struggles of his day-and his corollary relevance for the on-going struggle for universal human rights today-is exemplified by a concise yet insightful essay by Len Gougeon on what he calls Emerson's "reinvention of democracy" in the time of the Civil War, in turn complemented by Lawrence Buell's discussion of the vocation of the Emersonian scholar, and the related tension between self-reliance and social accountability. Adding to the cast of erudite philosophical readings, John Lysaker elucidates Emerson's high pertinence to a Bildung-like project of personal self-culture, David Marr insightfully re-interprets Emerson's first Nature (1836), while Douglas R. Anderson in turn adds a reading of the second "Nature" (1844), stressing...