The Transcendentalists: An Anthology

by Perry Miller (Editor), Alexander H. Everett (Contributor), Edward Everett (Contributor)

An important book.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Poetry, Literature, American, American History, Local History

540 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Perry Gilbert Eddy Miller was an intellectual historian and Harvard University professor. He was an authority on American Puritanism, and one of the founders of what came to be known as 'American Studies'. Alfred Kazin once referred to him as "the master of American intellectual history."

In his most famous book, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939), Miller adopted a cultural approach to illuminate the worldview of the Puritans, unlike previous historians who employed psychological and economic explanations of their beliefs and behavior.

At Harvard, he directed numerous PhD dissertations; among his most notable students were historians Bernard Bailyn and Edmund Morgan. Margaret Atwood dedicated her famous book The Handmaid's Tale to Perry Miller. He had been a mentor to her at Harvard.

His major works included:

• (1933) Orthodoxy in Massachusetts, 1630-1650
• (1939) The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century
• (1949) Jonathan Edwards
• (1953) The New England Mind: From Colony to Province
• (1953) Roger Williams: His Contribution to the American Tradition
• (1956) Errand into the Wilderness
• (1956) The American Puritans [editor]
• (1957) The American Transcendentalists, their Prose and Poetry
• (1957) The Raven and the Whale: Poe, Melville and the New York Literary Scene
• (1958) Consciousness in Concord: The Text of Thoreau’s Hitherto “Lost Journal”
• (1961) The Legal Mind in America: from Independence to the Civil War
• (1965) The Life of the Mind in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War

Reviews

[Mike Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the items collected in this anthology are not of great note. Most of the authors collected in this anthology are of middling talent. This is why their works are not known, and why the existence of this book is so necessary. A movement such as transcendentalism is necessarily composed primarily of minor works and lesser talents. By bringing the works together and explaining them in lucid, measured introductory passages, Miller creates something far greater than the sum of its parts, something which must feel a little like the movement itself did at the time.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In graduate school, one of my special areas of interest was American political thought. One of the many books that I purchased to gain deeper acquaintance with this area was this edited volume by Perry Miller. In a Foreword, Miller notes that the American transcendentalists were in revolt (Page ix) "against the rationalism of their fathers." Their world view was an outgrowth of romanticism and philosophical idealism. Miller says, strikingly, that the movement could be seen as (Page ix) ". . .the first outcry against the materialistic pressures of a business civilization."

The book begins with an entry in his Journal by Henry David Thoreau, in which he distinguishes his view of nature from that of natural scientists. Thereafter, sections of this volume consider the history and doctrine of transcendentalism, naturalism, religion, literature, poetry, politics and society, and a final chapter called "Future Reference."

Among the thinkers and poets represented in this volume are, of course, Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Henry Channing, Orestes Brownson, Amos Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, Ellen Hooper, and Caroline Sturgis Hooper.

Some of the more interesting excerpts. . . One of these is an essay, "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," by Fuller, in which she calls out for greater liberty for women. Another selection is a graceful poem from Emerson, "Earth-Song," ending with the following lines:

"When I heard the Earth-song
I was no longer brave;
My avarice cooled
Like lust in the chill of the grave."

A final example is Charles Mayo Ellis' work, "An Essay on Transcendentalism," in which he lays out the basic principles of this school of thought. One quotation provides a sense of the heart of this view (Page 23): "The history of a man is not told by the account of the particles of matter of which his body is formed. He has an existence independent on the body--on the understanding---the material world or the spiritual."

If the reader would like a selection of works to illustrate the essence of Transcendentalism, this is not a bad starting point.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hang my head in shame - I started this book nearly five months ago, and I only made it half way through. Too much all at once; perhaps each author needs to be savored a bit and not hooked together like a barrel of monkeys. I'm going to give it three stars because some of what I read was grand and inspirational and beautiful; some, however, was dense and difficult.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transcendentalism is easily my favorite American literature movement. This anthology has some of my favorite pieces in it.

[Garrett Box · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perry Miller did, admittedly, a very great job gathering the lesser know works by both slightly unknown and relatively big name transcendentalists.

It’s certainly not his fault that some of the selections for this collection are incredible - I find Margaret Fuller to be a great read every time she’s featured, and chapter 6 and 7 held my interest well.

But some of the writings are simply not my style. I took a very long time to get through some of the readings. Great for students or those invested in the earlier poetical or literary analysis for sure.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read through various transcendentalist writers, commenting on politics, religion, and society. I also ways loved teaching transcendentalism in high school- hearing your inner voice, walk out in the woods. Very insightful writers.