The late professor Joseph Slater was General Editor of the Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson until 1996. Alfred R. Ferguson (1915–1974) was Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Jean Ferguson Carr is Associate Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, where she writes and teaches in composition, women’s studies, history of the book, literacy, and literary studies, focusing on nineteenth-century American constructions of literacy and letters.

• * Historical Introduction * Statement of Editorial Principles * Textual Introduction *Essays: First Series * I. History * II. Self-Reliance * III. Compensation * IV. Spiritual Laws * V. Love * VI. Friendship * VII. Prudence * VIII. Heroism * IX. The Over-Soul * X. Circles * XI. Intellect * XII. Art * Notes * Textual Apparatus * Parallel Passages * Index

The late professor Joseph Slater was General Editor of the Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson until 1996. Alfred R. Ferguson (1915–1974) was Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Jean Ferguson Carr is Associate Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, where she writes and teaches in composition, women’s studies, history of the book, literacy, and literary studies, focusing on nineteenth-century American constructions of literacy and letters.

• * Historical Introduction * Statement of Editorial Principles * Textual Introduction *Essays: First Series * I. History * II. Self-Reliance * III. Compensation * IV. Spiritual Laws * V. Love * VI. Friendship * VII. Prudence * VIII. Heroism * IX. The Over-Soul * X. Circles * XI. Intellect * XII. Art * Notes * Textual Apparatus * Parallel Passages * Index