{"product_id":"glad-to-the-brink-of-fear-a-portrait-of-ralph-waldo-emerson-9780691254340","title":"Glad to the Brink of Fear: A Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn engaging reassessment of the celebrated essayist and his relevance to contemporary readers\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMore 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing on telling episodes from Emerson's life alongside landmark essays like \"Self-Reliance,\" \"Experience,\" and \"Circles,\" \u003ci\u003eGlad to the Brink of Fear\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e James Marcus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/05\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 344\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.71lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.25w x 0.86d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691254340","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44453115592841,"sku":"9780691254340","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_5406a3e1-ccba-4243-bfb5-b90544cf44a5.jpg?v=1753819818","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/glad-to-the-brink-of-fear-a-portrait-of-ralph-waldo-emerson-9780691254340","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}