First we read, then we write Emerson on the creative process

Author of the outstanding biography Emerson: The Mind on Fire (CH, Sep'95, 33-0163), Richardson here offers an equally compelling, although significantly narrower, study of Ralph Waldo Emerson's views on the craft of writing. Richardson structures his study around such Emersonian components of the creative process as observing nature, reading, and keeping a journal, which served the transcendentalist author's purpose of constructing sentences inextricable from primary intuition and experience. Those familiar with essays central to the Emerson corpus, e.g., "The American Scholar" and "The Poet," will be familiar with these components. However, Richardson adds significant depth and breadth to understanding through his adept command of The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. by William Gilman (and others) (1960-82), a resource scholars still have not fully utilized. In fact, in a sizable portion, Emerson speaks for himself through his journal writings, and Richardson's authoritative, succinct commentary serves as framework. On account of Richardson's accessible yet deeply sympathetic depiction of the writing process and Emerson's struggle to gain a command of it, this book will interest writers of fiction and creative nonfiction as well as scholars and students of Emerson. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. T. H. Richardson University of Texas of the Permian Basin