Emerson & Thoreau: Figures of Friendship

List of Abbreviations Introduction / John T. Lysaker and William Rossi Part 1. Transcendental Contexts 1. Transcendental Friendship: An Oxymoron? / Lawrence Buell; 2. Forgiving the Giver: Emerson, Carlyle, Thoreau / Barbara Packer Part 2. Emerson's "Friendship" 3. "In the Golden Hour of Friendship": Transcendentalism and Utopian Desire / David M. Robinson; 4. Emerson and Skepticism: A Reading of "Friendship" / Russell B. Goodman; 5. On the Faces of Emersonian "Friendship" / John T. Lysaker Part 3. Thoreau's Divergent Melodies 6. "In Dreams Awake": Loss, Transcendental Friendship, and Elegy / William Rossi; 7. "Let Him Be to Me a Spirit": Paradoxes of True Friendship in Emerson and Thoreau / Alan D. Hodder Part 4. Giving Friendship for Life 8. Giving Friendship: The Perichoresis of an All-Embracing Service / James Crosswhite; 9. Leaving and Bequeathing: Friendship, Moral Perfectionism, and the Gleam of Light / Naoko Saito References Cited; List of Contributors; Index

University of Oregon

"Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendentalists had a lot more to say about friendship than is generally thought, and this is a good point of departure for these new readings." Robert F. Sayre, University of Iowa "Addresses an issueofriendshipothat is of crucial importance to the ethical and social visions of Emerson and Thoreau." James M. Albrecht, Pacific Lutheran University "Emerson & Thoreau: Figures of Friendship... offers compelling biographical background on [Emerson and Thoreau's] famous friendship, as well as insightful scholarship on their main writings about friendship: Emerson's essay 'Friendship,' and the 'Wednesday' section of Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)... The book's aspiration is to be that rare hybrid: an academic work urgent enough to change a reader's life... In both Emerson and Thoreau's thinking, friendship is indispensable in bringing about our better selves: our flourishing cannot occur without the challenges and opportunities for growth our friends provide us." - Scott Parker, Philosophy Now "Lysaker and Rossi believe that by studying Thoreau and Emerson's unique friendship and also their writing on the subject of friendship one can learn much about the mysterious and sometimes contradictory elements that tie all humans in friendship... Close examination of their written essays, letters, and journals does in fact enrich understanding of what the two men experienced... Recommended." oChoice