The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume I, 1819-1822

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Edited by William H. Gilman

Edited by Alfred R. Ferguson

Edited by George P. Clark

Edited by Merrell R. Davis

    [In these early journals and notebooks], Emerson was not writing for posterity. He was straightening out his own thoughts and accumulating his 'savings Bank' (as he said) which he could draw on for his published work. The manuscripts contain everything, from college essays, notes on lectures, and commonplace book jottings to accounts, lists of books to be read, indexes, and jokes. The editors have placed first things first. They will print all the journals, by which they mean 'those volumes which consist predominantly of Emerson's prose records of his experiences and thoughts.' As for the miscellaneous notebooks, priority will be given to those which contain 'personal, literary, and intellectual records.'...That the editors have been able to order this fascinating chaos is a tribute to their patience, intelligence, and skill. There will never have to be another edition.
       --The New York Times Book Review

    ...we want the fullest possible picture of the mind of a great Representative Man, and writer, like Emerson. This the new edition of the journals will do much to furnish. These earliest journals, boyish and immature as they are...have very decidedly the interest that, not only for the student, attaches to the spectacle of a young and potentially creative mind struggling to free itself from convention and commonplace and to arrive at its own idiosyncrasy of insight and truthtelling.
       --The Nation

  • Cover: The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume I, 1819-1822

William H. Gilman is professor of English at the University of Rochester.

Alfred R. Ferguson was, until his death, Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

George P. Clark was United States Cultural Affairs Officer in West Berlin.

Merrell R. Davis was professor of English at the University of Washington at the time of his death in 1961.