Virtually no writer has so influenced American thought as Ralph Waldo Emerson--called the heart and soul of Transcendentalism. Here renowned Emerson scholar Joel Myerson distills the essential core of this great thinker's vast letter-writing endeavors into one volume, presenting a collection of 350 pieces of correspondence written between 1813 and 1880. Emerson is revealed as thoroughly engaged with the vital issues of his day.