The History of Literature #361 – Five Glimpses of Gratitude (Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sharon Olds, Henry David Thoreau, WS Merwin)

361 Five Glimpses of Gratitude (Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sharon Olds, Henry David Thoreau, WS Merwin)

Feeling grateful, Jacke rummages through the literary storage trunk to find works on gratitude by five poets and essayists: Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sharon Olds, Henry David Thoreau, and W.

S. Merwin. Enjoy!

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History of Literature #111 – The Americanest American – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson-Eyeball

In 1984, the literary scholar Harold Bloom had this to say about Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Emerson is the mind of our climate, the principal source of the American difference in poetry, criticism and pragmatic post-philosophy…. Emerson, by no means the greatest American writer… is the inescapable theorist of all subsequent American writing. From his moment to ours, American authors either are in his tradition, or else in a counter-tradition originating in opposition to him.” Who was Emerson? How did he become so influential? What did he unlock in American literature? And what can we take from his works today?

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