Transatlantic Transcendentalism
Coleridge, Emerson, and Nature
The first book devoted to Coleridge’s influence on Emerson and the development of American Transcendentalism
As Samantha C. Harvey demonstrates, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s thought galvanized Emerson at a pivotal moment in his intellectual development in the years 1826-1836, giving him new ways to harmonize the Romantic triad of nature, spirit, and humanity. Emerson did not think about Coleridge: he thought with Coleridge, resulting in a unique case of assimilative influence. In addition to examining his specific literary, philosophical, and theological influences on Emerson, this book reveals Coleridge’s centrality for Boston Transcendentalism and Vermont Transcendentalism, a movement which profoundly affected the development of modern higher education, the national press, and the emergence of Pragmatism.
Key Features- Illuminates how the emerging field of transatlantic studies has opened new circulatory spaces to reconsider the relationship between Coleridge and Emerson
- Asserts Coleridge as the single most important influence on Emerson’s early essays
- Examines the centrality of nature in the dynamic context of Transatlantic Romanticism
- Highlights the essential but overlooked legacy of Coleridge’s dynamic principles of method for Emerson and for Boston and Vermont Transcendentalism
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1: Transatlantic Transcendentalism
2: Coleridge and Boston Transcendentalism
Coleridge's American Interpreters
James Marsh and the American Aids to Reflection
“Germanicus”: Frederick Henry Hedge
3: Nature: Philosophy and “The Riddle of the World”
Coleridge’s Dynamic Philosophy
Emerson’s First Philosophy
4: The Landing Place: “Distinguishing without Dividing” and Coleridge’s Method
Reason and Understanding
Natura Naturans and Natura Naturata
Principles of Method: “The Self-Unraveling Clue”
Method and the Romantic Triad
5: Humanity: “Art is the Mediatress, the Reconciliator of Man and Nature”
Romantic Triad and the “Book of Nature”
The Poet-Prophet
Imagination: The “synthetic and magical power”
6: Spirit: “An Influx of the Divine Mind”
Revelation
Creation
Evolution
Panentheism
Faith: “The Completing KEY-STONE”
7: Emerson’s Nature: Coleridge’s Method and the Romantic Triad
Nature Encapsulated: The Introduction and First Chapter
The Domain of the Understanding: “Commodity” and “Beauty”
The Bridging Chapters: “Language” and “Discipline”
Idealism and Beyond: The Final Chapters
Conclusion: Imagining “A new heaven and a new earth” in Literature
8: Coleridge and Vermont Transcendentalism
A Coleridgean Curriculum
Marsh’s Continuing Legacy
H. A. P. Torrey and John Dewey
Dewey, Coleridge’s Method, and Pragmatism
“Philosophy and American National Life”
“James Marsh and American Philosophy”
Notes
Works Cited
Index.
Abbreviations
1: Transatlantic Transcendentalism
2: Coleridge and Boston Transcendentalism
Coleridge's American Interpreters
James Marsh and the American Aids to Reflection
“Germanicus”: Frederick Henry Hedge
3: Nature: Philosophy and “The Riddle of the World”
Coleridge’s Dynamic Philosophy
Emerson’s First Philosophy
4: The Landing Place: “Distinguishing without Dividing” and Coleridge’s Method
Reason and Understanding
Natura Naturans and Natura Naturata
Principles of Method: “The Self-Unraveling Clue”
Method and the Romantic Triad
5: Humanity: “Art is the Mediatress, the Reconciliator of Man and Nature”
Romantic Triad and the “Book of Nature”
The Poet-Prophet
Imagination: The “synthetic and magical power”
6: Spirit: “An Influx of the Divine Mind”
Revelation
Creation
Evolution
Panentheism
Faith: “The Completing KEY-STONE”
7: Emerson’s Nature: Coleridge’s Method and the Romantic Triad
Nature Encapsulated: The Introduction and First Chapter
The Domain of the Understanding: “Commodity” and “Beauty”
The Bridging Chapters: “Language” and “Discipline”
Idealism and Beyond: The Final Chapters
Conclusion: Imagining “A new heaven and a new earth” in Literature
8: Coleridge and Vermont Transcendentalism
A Coleridgean Curriculum
Marsh’s Continuing Legacy
H. A. P. Torrey and John Dewey
Dewey, Coleridge’s Method, and Pragmatism
“Philosophy and American National Life”
“James Marsh and American Philosophy”
Notes
Works Cited
Index.
Harvey’s account is the clearest and most detailed yet.
Space does not permit the myriad payoffs to be gleaned by a careful reading of Harvey’s book. These include crisp metaphors – often crisper and more illuminating than Coleridge or Emerson themselves – clear categorical distinctions, and an overall argument structure that supports itself well.
In this lucid and elegant transatlantic study, Harvey shows how deeply Emerson’s thought – hence Transcendentalism itself – was imbued with the light of Coleridge’s philosophy.
This is the definitive book on the Coleridge-Emerson relation and offers a superb picture of transatlantic Romanticism at work—traced, affirmed, and explained. Professor Harvey provides the full context and result of their relationship. In addition, the chapter treating Coleridge's formative presence in the Vermont school of Transcendentalism, which continues to influence higher education and Pragmatism, is a gem.
...this is a remarkable book: a richly-informed and luminously intelligent study of a complex but crucial subject. Thorough yet concise, dense yet lucid, it reflects an impressive knowledge of the primary and secondary texts, yet relentlessly focuses on what the author designates "the Romantic triad."
We can be grateful to Harvey for her detailing of how a young Emerson absorbed and developed ideas from across the Pond and, in the process, became a great American thinker.
In striking accounts of what Emerson learned from Goleridge and European Romanticism, Harvey [has] thoroughly reassessed these transatlantic hospitalities.
