This is the first and only comprehensive selection of lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson, his era s most prominent American man of letters and one of the foremost architects of our intellectual culture. Based on authoritative texts selected and edited by Ronald A. Bosco and Joel Myerson--the most experienced Emerson editors working today--these twenty-five addresses collectively exemplify the lecture style for which Emerson was famed in his day.

Best known to his contemporaries as a lecturer, Emerson delivered some 1,500 addresses over the course of his career. Because his most important...