Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and Transcendentalism

Abstract

The big news for 2017 is the Thoreau Bicentennial. The sheer volume of quality scholarship appearing this year is truly remarkable. Among the many full-length studies and essay collections are Thoreau: A Life, the new definitive biography by Laura Dassow Walls; a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Prose edited by Richard J. Schneider; Henry David Thoreau in Context, edited by James S. Finley; and The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years, an important contribution to our understanding of Thoreau’s science by Robert M. Thorson. Although outdone by his younger friend, Emerson receives strong contributions from Roger Thompson on rhetoric and John T. Lysaker on philosophy. After a few sleepy years, Transcendentalism as a movement experiences renewed attention with four full-length studies and numerous book chapters and articles. Such unfairly neglected individuals as Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Henry James Sr., and Jones Very receive fresh considerations as well.