yes, go ahead, hit your one-click order button now. for anyone interested in the life, thought, ideals and teachings of a GREAT american original, this is a book you want and need. brilliant, beautiful, eternal, this book will not go out of date. universal wisdom is timeless and Emerson was a master. he was an avid admirer of the wondrous Bhagavad Gita and his writings reflect that. he had an understanding of the need for each self to connect with the eternal Self or spirit, to use his americanized way of saying it. his teaching keeps pointing the reader right back to the very heart of himself or herself: the place divinity lives, the place where God is found. shortly after resigning as a minister of the unitarian church, he wrote, "i will not live out of me. i will not see with other's eyes. my good is good, my evil ill. i would be free---i cannot be, while i take things as others please to rate them. i dare attempt to lay out my own road, that which myself delights in shall be good. that which i do not want--indifferent. that which i hate is bad, that's flat. henceforth, please God, forever i forgo the yoke of men's opinions. i will be lighthearted as a bird and live with God". o k, hit that button a couple of times, this book makes a wonderful gift and you ain't gonna wanna give up your copy!!!

Harold Bloom repeatedly names Ralph Waldo Emerson as the great theological architect of the "American religion" in his book of that title. However controversial some of Bloom's other theses may be, there is much truth in his characterization of the Sage of Concord. Probably most of us have been influenced by Emerson, at least indirectly, in far more ways than we realize.

But reading Emerson directly is at once an enlightening and maddening experience: "enlightening" because Emerson was a philosopher in the best sense of the word -- a lover of wisdom -- and "maddening" because he was _not_ a philosopher in any _other_ sense of the word. He was stubbornly disinclined to argumentation or even systematic exposition; his essays read more like sermons than like philosophical arguments; he preferred to deliver himself of his oracular insights without, it seems, subjecting them either to the criticism of other minds or even to the rigors of critical self-reflection, on the view that Reason was an all but infallible source of insight into truth and its objects are known with the same immediacy with which we know that we are awake. (It is a curious view of reason which makes no allowances for improvement of one's understanding.)

As a result of this take-it-or-leave it approach, his writings are all too easy to misunderstand, and for this he must bear much of the blame. For example, his remarks on charity in "Self-reliance" have led some readers to suppose that he was opposed to charity altogether, whereas in truth he believed that we are each of us suited by talent and temperament to be "charitable" to a special class of persons for whom we are therefore _truly_ responsible. Then, too, his remark in the same essay on "a foolish consistency" has been infamously and endlessly misquoted -- but even in its proper context it invites misunderstanding by failing to pay sufficient attention to the non-foolish variety of consistency (which Emerson supposed would take care of itself more or less automatically). Here again, Emerson's account of Reason, in giving so much weight to intuition, leaves strangely little room for reflection.

But in my own opinion, at least, Emerson's insights are genuine, sometimes brilliant, and essentially right, and it would be a shame if the readers who needed him most were unable to profit from his writings merely because he had been needlessly obscure. It would be nice, then, to have from another writer the guidance that Emerson himself was unwilling or unable to provide.

As you've probably guessed by now, that's where Richard Geldard comes in.

In this volume (which is a revised edition of _The Esoteric Emerson_, so don't buy them both!) Geldard does a marvelous job of exposition. He knows his Emerson backwards and forwards, and he sets out the essential features of Emerson's thought in clear and orderly fashion, chapter by chapter.

His essential "take" on Emerson, as you can tell from his title, is that Emerson is best approached as a spiritual teacher. I think this is not only correct but even obviously so; yet it is surprising how few available critical studies of Emerson are actually written from this point of view. At any rate, Geldard's exposition will provide the reader of Emerson with a much-needed "map" of the territory traversed in his writings.

I suspect that Geldard's "map" will make Emerson available to many readers who might otherwise have found him unpalatable. Some readers may, for example, be put off by what seems to be Emerson's extraordinarily cavalier attitude toward tradition in favor of present experience.

But according to Geldard, Emerson's actual meaning was as follows: "We have to break, lovingly, the vessels of our tradition in order to become one with the source of that tradition" [p. 176]. Now, certainly there is a difference in emphasis here with the religious tradition in which Emerson was brought up. But surely this is not far from, say, the Christian doctrine that the scriptures are a closed book unless read "in the Spirit." (Granted, Emerson had much more in common with the Quakers than with the Calvinists in what he made of this point. Nevertheless it is not alien to even the most theologically conservative Christianity.)

Not being a Christian myself, though, I am interested not primarily in reconciling Emerson with Christian theology but in simple exposition of his teaching. And Geldard excels in this regard: in ten straightforward chapters he sets out the essentials of Emerson's teaching and places it into the context of his life. Not bad for 177 pages of text.

There are one or two points on which I wish Geldard had done a _little_ bit more explaining (for example, on the difference between the meanings of "idealism" in its philosophical and its popular senses), since he does not seem to be presuming any prior acquaintance with philosophy on the part of his readers. But this is just nitpicking on my part. (Hey, I have my own favorite hobby horses too.) This is a fine book and it will be of immense value to anyone who wants to understand what in the world Emerson was on about.

Emerson had a persona of being withdrawn, and rarely showed emotion. However, if he were here today, I believe that he would be very pleased with Geldard's interpretation of his work. Most of us have read Emerson's essays. They are thick and difficult, but the spirit of the work rings through and speaks very loudly to the authentic heart. Geldard has done the work of specific interpretation for us. If you feel a need for being yourself, which most of us do (healthy people do), then this book is a must read. Emerson turned away from the path that seemed to have been chosen for him, took a chance, and listened to his authentic self. The author points out that Emerson had some difficult years, and that rings true today for those of us that know, and chose to march to the beat of our own drum (Thoreau??). Emerson was inspired and was a great gift to us. Geldard makes his work understandable and relates it to our lives, today. Emerson was highly intellectual, and after reading Geldard's book, I'm preparing to read Emerson's essays once again, with the light that Geldard has placed upon it. It's pure, and it's spirit, and it is authentic. Of the five best books I've ever read, like my five friends out of the many, I can count this one on the top five. Read it, read it slowly, devour it, contemplate it. Let it permeate your being and at the very least have a place in your thought patterns during your day. This work is meant to teach and inspire and it has succeeded!

As a young man my Holy Trinity was: Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. Emerson's essays are pure poetry; Thoreau's "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience" became a blueprint on how to live and why to write; and Whitman's life and "Leaves Of Grass" taught me about myself.

"A Life Of The Mind" filled each page with the authenticity and richness of a life well lived. Thoreau, the humanness, the naturalist, the friend and son; the poet of the unraveling, entangled soul beating within the humdrum of everyday and ordinary life, leaps from every page. I have read other biographies on Thoreau which never captured the mind and writer of "Walden". Here the man and life equalled and qualified the literature.

Richardson is more than a biographer of Thoreau; he's made from the same stock. He didn't simply tell of a man and his life, he savored, and shared in the same poetics and struggles as the man he researched. The theme of Thoreau's life was an opportunity to express his own convictions and struggles.

It was while reading an anthology of Thoreau's work that I first understood why some poets and writers must write. I came to understand how every sentence could be layered with meaning and timelessness. After reading this biography I must reread my annotated "Walden". I must sit in my backyard amongst the leaves and flowers and shapes and densities I've not paid attention to in some time.

If you want to get your mind around Thoreau's mind and the more significant facts of his life, buy and read this book. Because the chapters are brief but meaty, and because Richardson's an accomplished prose stylist in his own right, this book is a joy to read and, I have found, is wonderful to come back to periodically, particularly when looking for a great way to spend ten to twenty extra minutes profitably.

Robert D. Richardson takes the busy-bodied world of Thoreau and places each of his accomplishments into context starting with their respective intellectual origin. In the process of doing this, Richardson constructs the world of Thoreau's Concord and creates it for us vividly and realistically. This is by far the best Thoreau bio out there and serves a perfect book-end with his Emerson bio, The Mind On Fire.

Mark Richardson has a profound command of the work of Robert Frost. This book was an absolute delight to read. I would recommend it not only to those readers interested in Robert Frost, but in the study of poetry in general.

Exceptionally good book, and a must-read for anyone interested in Frost, or occupied with the study of his work. Thoughtful and rewarding. Highly recommended.

Being a public speaker, I was looking for ways to grow in my speaking skills. The Charisma Factor provided me with the tools to stir an audience into action. It is not by manipulation, it is by harnessing some of the well researched principles discussed in the book such as, entrainment, vocal synchrony, and sensory stimulating language to effectively impact your audience. If you work on using the principles in this book, you will communicate on a deeper level with those you come in contact with.

As a 25 year resident of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, I must say this man knows his stuff. His ratings of the restaurants are dead on and his discriptions of the cities is not only factual but also amusing. There are things he found I didn't know about and are dying to check out. This is a must read for anyone who wants to know some little known facts about this great metroplex.

With contributions by faculty, graduate students, and postdocs at Cornell, this book is a collection of very practical recipes written in a language easily accessible to a senior undergraduate or a beginning graduate student. If you are planning a novel experiment, building a new setup, or troubleshooting or adapting an existing piece of equipment, this book is an invaluable tool. It covers most of the little details which nobody mentions in respectable PRL articles but without the understanding of which nothing will work and your boss will not be happy. The book also has most of the important material property tables which you'd be scrambling to collect from all over. This book should be a reference to any low-temperature experimentalist, ahead of all other texts.

Very informative piece on this early architectural pioneer. The author has done an excellent and thorough job of documenting Eley's history. I especially liked the photos in the book of some of Mr. Eley's projects.

Though he lived over 200 years ago, John Richardson was the first navel surgeon. Way ahead of his time, he performed operations of bellybutton-alteration on such contemporary superstars as Martha Washington and Betsy Ross. That was before the Colonies revolted of course!

This is a wonderful story of the Tiltonsville, Rayland Area-So full of History and fact and even a little romance. The author really captured the time and is so well informs his readers. I had checked this out of the Library for my Son's Scout project and I really hate to return it.

I must confess that I don't understand the reader review below who found this biography of Emerson to be a difficult read. Although not quite a page-turner, I managed to read this in very little time at all. I must also confess that I do find Emerson himself incredibly difficult to read. But what I find to be the case in Emerson himself, I did not find to be true in Richardson's biography. While I find that Emerson constructed one stunning sentence and aphorism after another, I generally find his essays to be slow going. Nonetheless, while I am not his biggest fan, he is unquestionably one of the four or five greatest figures in American intellectual history, and Richardson's biography does him great justice.

The great merit of this biography is that at the end of it, you feel that you have gained considerable insight both into Emerson and New England intellectual life in the 19th century. I was especially intrigued with Richardson detailing of Emerson's reading. Emerson was, without any question, a great reader. Great readers rarely read books from cover to cover. Samuel Johnson, who was himself one of the most accomplished readers in the history of civilization, once said that we have more of a need to reread than to read. But he also once quipped, "What, you read books all the way to the end?" Emerson did not read books all the way to the end. But like Johnson and other great readers, he had a genius for picking out the most important points. What Boswell wrote of Johnson is true also of Emerson: "He had a peculiar facility in seizing at once what was valuable in any book, without submitting to the labour of perusing it from beginning to end."

One comes away from the book also enormously impressed with Emerson's character. He seems by any standard to have been a remarkably good human being. He was both a man of high principle, and a man of powerful attachments to other human beings. I found the accounting of his various friendships, many to equally famous individuals, to be of the utmost interest. Also, he seems to have met virtually every important thinker and writer in the English-speaking world, from Coleridge to Carlyle to Melville.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a deeper knowledge of Emerson's life and work. By any standard, Emerson is one of the giants in American life. His influence on American thought is incalculable. Consider: not only was he the major influence on such American literary figures the magnitude of Thoreau and Whitman; he was a profound influence on artists such as Thomas Cole, Moran, and Bierstadt. America's deep-rooted environmentalism is steeped in Emersonian Transcendentalism. John Muir was a devoted reader of Emerson. One could make a case for Emerson having had perhaps more influence in the shaping of American thought than any other individual. This biography is an outstanding introduction to that person.

A remarkable biography of an enduring genius in American history.'Emerson: The Mind on Fire', is a reading experience that was at once moving, educationally rewarding and, above all, inspiring. The book is a well- crafted, well- researched analysis of 'the' American philosopher of the 19th century. After completing the work, I felt as though I knew the great man intimately, and found myself feeling sad that he wasn't in the phone book or had an email address to invite him and his family over for dinner. As Thoreau once wrote, "Surely joy is the condition of life." And this is most certainly the leading emotion that I felt while reading this book. And as Emerson wrote: "The purpose of life is individual cultivation, self expression, and fulfillment." At the risk of sounding too praiseworthy, Richardson's commendable biography has given me the opportunity to experience all three of the above. Since a freshman in highschool, my predelication to Transcedentalism has moved in and out of my life like a warm breeze. This particular work has re-lit this old philosophical spark,causing the winds to rise again, so to speak, creating a kind of intellectual excitment. I have read hundreds of biographies on many great individuals, but this one ranks as one of the best. I recommend this book highly.

Richardson has given us a most profound biography of one of the world's most profound men. And in this case, I'm almost as impressed with the biographer as the man he reports. This book has 100 chapters, each one as full of outstanding ideas as some entire books I've read. I owe many wonderful evenings and mornings to Richardson who has given me the keenest insights into my favorite teacher and author. Richardson so accurately portrays Emerson's journey of a self-realized soul marching in his conviction of the final authority of the individual self that I personally felt I was making the same journey. In so many moments, something swelled within me while reading this book, that I thought perhaps even one such as myself might grasp these elevated concepts Richardson so lucidly explains. Emerson himself said, "only that book is good which puts the reader in a working mood." While reading this book I have felt encouraged in my own quest to do the work of unfolding my own nature with reverential awe, as Emerson admonishes us, by keeping my own journals and studying to unify myself with the eternity at the core of my being.

Richardson not only studied Emerson to write this book, he studied the books that Emerson studied thereby showing Emerson's method, intellectual origins, and his native genius that courageously broke with contemporary traditions to create a cohesive world-view that has inspired so many.

Emerson, more than any other author I have read, believed in the grandeur of the soul--not just his own--but in each of us. He wrote in his journal, "When I look at the rainbow I find myself the center of its arch. But so are you; and so is the man who sees it a mile from both of us. So also the globe is round, and every man therefore stands on the top. King George, and the chimney sweep no less."

If you are looking for a book to not only stretch your limits of understanding but help you realize the helping hand at the end of your own arm, do yourself the favor and get Richardson's biography and spend many enlightening hours studying Emerson with Richardson. You might also consider spending the extra few dollars and get the hardback . It'll last a lot longer under the wear you'll give it referring to it again and again.