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    Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson
    Unavailable
    Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson
    Unavailable
    Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson
    Ebook393 pages10 hours

    Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson

    By Jeffrey S. Cramer

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A thoughtfully researched, movingly presented dual-biography of two iconic American writers, each trying to find the ideal friend with whom they could share their journey through our imperfect world.

    Any biography that concentrates on either Henry David Thoreau or Ralph Waldo Emerson tends to diminish the other figure, but in Solid Seasons both men remain central and equal. Through several decades of writing, friendship remained a primary theme for them both.

    Collecting extracts from the letters and journals of both men, as well as words written about them by their contemporaries, Jeffrey S. Cramer beautifully illustrates the full nature of their twenty-five-year dialogue. Biographers like to point at the crisis in their friendship, focusing particularly on Thoreau's disappointment in Emerson—rarely on Emerson's own disappointment in Thoreau—and leaving it there, a friendship ruptured. But the solid seasons remained, as is evident when, in 1878, Anne Burrows Gilchrist, the English writer and friend of Whitman, visited Emerson. She wrote that his memory was failing "as to recent names and topics but as is usual in such cases all the mental impressions that were made when he was in full vigour remain clear and strong." As they chatted, Emerson called to his wife, Lidian, in the next room, "What was the name of my best friend?"

    "Henry Thoreau," she answered.
    "Oh, yes," Emerson repeated. "Henry Thoreau."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCounterpoint
    Release dateApr 9, 2019
    ISBN9781640091320
    Unavailable
    Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson

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    • 4/5
      Pleasant reflections of an almost 90 year old acclaimed poet.
    • 4/5
      The essays in this collection cover Hall's life. Some emphasized the personal, his marriage, family, love and loss. Others focused on professional relationships with writers and poets. I preferred the more personal.