Journals and Commonplace Books
It was becoming a habit with [Thoreau] now to work back over his journals and to reread books, to reengage old subjects in the light of new interests, to revise and recopy his own earlier…
Tag: Robert D. Richardson Jr.
Take Charge
Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr. Johnson if he had read it. JOHNSON: “I have looked into it.” “What (said Elphinston) have you not read it through?” …
An Aunt’s Gift to Her Nephew
ADVICE: “ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU ARE AFRAID TO DO.”–Mary Moody Emerson, to Ralph Waldo Emerson Cited in Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Emerson: The Mind on Fire, 25
Up to Me
Buddhist nontheism teaches us that no one else is going to liberate us. We are each responsible for our own liberation. Thus, self-self-liberation first is most important because without self-self-liberation true compassion, the fuel to…
Readerwriters
During this active seedtime, Emerson was also reading in all directions. He read systematically only for a particular project. He read current books and old books…And from almost everything he read he culled phrases, details,…
Writing Our Own Histories: A Spring/Summer Class
“First We Read, Then We Write” –title of Robert D. Richardson’s study on Emerson’s creative life “Something that you feel will find its own form” –Jack Kerouac, U.S. novelist and poet “You have to write…
Exciting Curiosity
Robert D. Richardson Jr., Emerson: The Mind on Fire University of California Peress, 1995 In the summer of 2017 I had the immense pleasure of reading Richardson’s stunning biography of the U.S. sage, and noted…