One First Love: The Letters of Ellen Louisa Tucker to Ralph Waldo Emerson

Published by Harvard University Press 1962

One First Love

The Letters of Ellen Louisa Tucker to Ralph Waldo Emerson

Edited by: Edith W. Gregg

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674434103

Overview
Contents

About this book

Letters, poems, and fragments of a journal are the only first-hand reflection we have of a personality of major importance in the life of Ralph Waldo Emerson, that of the beautiful and gifted Ellen Louisa Tucker, whom he married in 1829. Blithe, humorous, full of charm and candor, the engaging seventeen-year-old had captured wholly the heart of the serious young minister. The depth and transforming effect on him of their happy love is a universally acknowledged biographical fact, as is the tragic, shattering effect of her early death in 1831. Emerson's letters to Ellen Tucker have been destroyed, but several of his poems to her--two of them hitherto unpublished--are included with her letters in this volume. This romantic chronicle of two intelligent, active young people takes on a poignant significance as a monument to a love that affected Emerson profoundly during the years of his most critical personal decisions. The letters are owned by the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association. They are edited and presented here by Emerson's great-granddaughter, a trustee of the Association, as the most direct commemoration possible of a vital experience, intimate and central to the Emerson story.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	ii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I. DECEMBER 1828 - SEPTEMBER 1829 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
PART II. DECEMBER 1829 - FEBRUARY 1831 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
PART III. POEMS AND NOTEBOOKS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
NOTES. NOTES ON THE TEXT. INDEX
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Notes on the Text Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1962
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 11
- Main content: 208
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 8
- Other: 8 halftones
Keywords: LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General; LITERARY COLLECTIONS / General; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women; Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882. Correspondence.; Emerson, Ellen Tucker -- Correspondence.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674434103

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1962
ISBN: 9780674434097