Biography and "Self-Reliance"

A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Edited by Joel Myerson

Published shortly before the bicentennial celebration of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson in 2003, A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson edited by Joel Myerson, neatly juxtaposes various essays that highlight important historical times in Emerson’s life. In the first essay, “Ralph Waldo Emerson 1812-1892: A Brief Biography”, Ronald A. Bosco chronologically outlines moments in Emerson’s personal and professional life. He dedicates a large portion of the essay to the development of Emerson’s thinking during the 1830’s. He writes, “the challenge before him in 1835 was to bring order to the formlessness of the words he had been gathering; they required a unifying theme, a unifying vision, to hold them together before they could achieve a degree of finality in print.” (20) Around this time, Emerson took a trip to Europe and was especially affected by his visit to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris where he roamed through the Cabinet of Natural History. Bosco writes, “his account of the thoughts that occurred to him . . . makes clear that this was the day when the unifying vision for his spiritual discourse—his ‘book about nature,’ as he had described it when he sailed away from England—was born.” (21) The publication of Nature, in 1836, was the culmination of Emerson’s journal writings and lectures and provided readers with an entirely new outlook on individuality and the divine.
The following essay, “The Age of the First Person Singular” by Wesley T. Mott focuses on the Emersonian concept of “self-reliance”, and how it has evolved into a staple term associated with American identity. Mott argues, “in the American experience, perhaps no abstract terms are more emotionally or ideologically charged than self-reliance or individualism, terms whose currency is generally credited to Emerson.” (62) From the onset, “Self-Reliance” was met with positive reactions by other idealist writers of the nineteenth century such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Mott’s essay also shows how Emerson’s words are still popular today. He writes, “A spot for Nike athletic company that ran during the early 1990s showed rapid-fire shots of supple, self-absorbed youths, as a muted voice-over intoned a series of one-line aphorisms from Emerson’s ‘Self-Reliance’, all culminating in Nike’s crass trademark slogan . . . ‘Just do it.’” (64) Mott further argues that since “Self-Reliance” is so often quoted whether it be through advertising, political jargon, or stationary, it is essential that we reexamine the essay and truly understand the meaning behind Emerson’s words. Therefore, “what we make of Emersonian individualism, then, is no mere academic exercise but a matter central to our cultural identity.” (68)

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Originally Posted by lep250

From the onset, “Self-Reliance” was met with positive reactions by other idealist writers of the nineteenth century such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.

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Apparently Whitman all-too-well agreed and applied Emerson's philosophy of "Self-Reliance," and for good reason. Reportedly, in another biography, while Emerson attempted warning Whitman, just before publishing a collection of Whitman's poetry, that the public may insult his poetry because of its sexual connotations; allegedly, Whitman quoted Emerson's own words from "Self-Reliance" and proceeded publishing his epic poetry by applying Emerson's epic ethics.