The Very Best of Emerson: Self-Reliance, The Conduct of Life, Nature, The American Scholar

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Emerson is a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay, Nature. Following this ground-breaking work, he gave a speech entitled "The American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. considered to be America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence".
He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement, and his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers and poets that have followed him. When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was "the infinitude of the private man."
The Best of Emerson includes four of Emerson’s greatest works, Self-Reliance, The Conduct of Life, Nature, and his speech The American Scholar. Self-Reliance contains the most thorough statement of Emerson’s believe for the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency and follow his own instincts and ideas. In the Conduct of Life Emerson sets out to answer the question of “how shall I live?” The Conduct of Life was one of Emerson’s most successful works and has been identified as a source of influence for many writers, including Friedrich Nietzsche. Nature is an essay in which Emerson laid the foundation of transcendentalism, the belief that includes a non-traditional appreciation of nature and suggest that the divine is within Nature and reality can be understood by studying nature. The American Scholar was a speech given by Emerson to Phi Beta Kappa Society in Cambridge a year after he published his ground breaking work, Nature. Sixty years after declaring independence, American culture was still heavily influenced by Europe, and Emerson, possibly for the first time provided a visionary philosophical framework for building a new and distinctly American cultural identity.
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”
-Mark Twain
At Little Acorn Publishing we believe that by reading the best essays, speeches, and books from history’s greatest thinkers we can all better ourselves. We have selected key publications from history’s most influential people that we think will not only improve your mind but broaden your spectrum of knowledge. The wider your spectrum of knowledge, the more tools you have to find solutions and create the life you want. With a broad spectrum of knowledge we are able to avoid the ”man with a hammer” conundrum. To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail, but those with a broad tool box of knowledge are able to use the best solution. Our strategy for providing essential knowledge is to select the best books from the best in their fields. Our goal is to provide you with the ability to stand on the shoulders of giants so that you may see clearly and create your dreams.
Mighty oaks grow from little acorns and to start the growth process we should read the best books.