An engaging reassessment of the celebrated essayist and his relevance to contemporary readers More than two centuries after his birth, Ralph Waldo Emerson remains one of the presiding spirits in American culture. Yet his reputation as the starry-eyed prophet of self-reliance has obscured a much more complicated figure who spent a lifetime wrestling with injustice, philosophy, art, desire, and suffering. James Marcus introduces readers to this Emerson, a writer of self-interrogating genius whose visionary flights are always grounded in Yankee shrewdness. This Emerson is a rebel. He is also a lover, a friend, a husband, and a father. Having declared his great topic to be “the infinitude of the private man,” he is nonetheless an intensely social being who develops Transcendentalism in the company of Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, and Theodore Parker. And although he resists political activism early on—hoping instead for a revolution in consciousness—the burning issue of slavery ultimately transforms him from cloistered metaphysician to fiery abolitionist. Drawing on telling episodes from Emerson’s life alongside landmark essays like “Self-Reliance,” “Experience,” and “Circles,” Glad to the Brink of Fear reveals how Emerson shares our preoccupations with fate and freedom, race and inequality, love and grief. It shows, too, how his desire to see the world afresh, rather than accepting the consensus view, is a lesson that never grows old.

Publisher Description

Mary Moody Emerson has long been a New England legend, the "eccentric Calvinist aunt" of Ralph Waldo Emerson, wearing a death-shroud as her daily garment. This exciting new study, based on the first reading of all her known letters and diaries, reveals a complex human voice and powerful forerunner of American Transcendentalism. From the years of her famous nephew's infancy, in both private and published writings, she celebrated independence, solitude in nature, and inward communion with God. Mary Moody Emerson inherited both resources and constraints from her family, a lineage of Massachusetts ministers who had earlier practiced spiritual awakening and political resistance against England. Cole discovers a previously unexamined Emerson tradition of fervent piety in the ancestors' own writing and Mary's preservation of their memory. She also examines the position of a woman in this patriarchal family. Barred from the pulpit and university by her sex, she also refused marriage to become a reader, writer, and religious seeker. Cole's biography explores this reading and writing as both a woman's vocation and a gift to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Helping to raise her nephews after their father's death, Mary Moody Emerson urged Waldo the college student to seek solitude in nature and become a divine poet. Cole's pioneering study, tracing crucial lines of influence from Mary Emerson's heretofore unknown texts to her nephew's major works, establishes a fresh and vital source for a central American literary tradition.

Learn how to improve your health and wellness with the healing magic of cannabis, CBD and medicinal mushrooms. When health coach and wellness blogger Jenny Sansouci learned that her father was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, her extensive knowledge of the latest alternative therapies was put to the test. Jenny dove into the world of cannabis and mushrooms and their medicinal properties - and she and her dad are now outspoken champions of the healing power of these plants and fungi - not only to tame the side effects of chemotherapy, but to address everyday wellness concerns. The Rebel's Apothecary is the result of her heartfelt and rigorous quest -- a science-based and supportive guide that will enhance the lives of anyone living with pain, anxiety, depression, a weakened immune system, insomnia, and more. Complete with background information, dosing instructions, and everyday recipes, this is the essential handbook for harnessing the ancient healing powers of cannabis and mushrooms --safely, without confusion, fear, or an unwanted high. In addition to debunking myths and de-stigmatizing these powerful healing plants and fungi, The Rebel's Apothecary presents: Specific protocols and dosage guides for wellness uses (mood, sleep, immunity, focus, energy) and managing common chemotherapy side effects Everyday wellness routines Recipes for delicious, easy, health-enhancing cannabis and mushroom infused smoothies, coffee drinks, teas, elixirs, gummies, and broths - including recipes from chefs and wellness experts like Dr. Andrew Weil, Kris Carr, Seamus Mullen, Marco Canora and more The latest research on CBD, THC, medicinal mushrooms and psilocybin Tips for creating a cutting-edge home apothecary of your own

Join Huck and Jim as they journey down the Mississippi in this beloved companion to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer "and a standalone classic in its own right, with a fresh new cover and interior illustrations. "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"; but that ain't no matter," declares Huck at the start of one of the greatest books in American literature. Filled with all the humor, suspense, and sheer excitement of its predecessor, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"--a nostalgic portrayal of a world Mark Twain knew intimately--tells the moving story of a boy who must make his own way in an often cruel society that counts it a sin to help a runaway slave. This edition includes a modern cover and new illustrations from Iacopo Bruno. This new look coincides with a new edition of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer "and the publication of "The Absolutely Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher."

In our time nobody is content to stop with faith but wants to go further. It would perhaps be rash to ask where these people are going, but it is surely a sign of breeding and culture for me to assume that everybody has faith, for otherwise it would be queer for them to be . . . going further. In those old days it was different, then faith was a task for a whole lifetime, because it was assumed that dexterity in faith is not acquired in a few days or weeks. When the tried oldster drew near to his last hour, having fought the good fight and kept the faith, his heart was still young enough not to have forgotten that fear and trembling which chastened the youth, which the man indeed held in check, but which no man quite outgrows. . . except as he might succeed at the earliest opportunity in going further. Where these revered figures arrived, that is the point where everybody in our day begins to go further.

In this novel about Ralph Waldo Emerson's wife, Lidian, Amy Belding Brown examines the emotional landscape of love and marriage. Living in the shadow of one of the most famous men of her time, Lidian becomes deeply disappointed by marriage, but consigned to public silence by social conventions and concern for her family's reputation. Drawn to the erotic energy and intellect of close family friend Henry David Thoreau, she struggles to negotiate the confusing territory between love and friendship while maintaining her moral authority and inner strength. In the course of the book, she deals with overwhelming social demands, faces devastating personal loss, and discovers the deepest meaning of love. Lidian eventually encounters the truth of her own character and learns that even our faults can lead us to independence.