First We Read, Then We Write by Robert D Richardson

First We Read, Then We Write by Robert D Richardson

Writing was the central passion of Emerson s life. While his thoughts on the craft are well developed in The Poet, The American Scholar, Nature, Goethe, and Persian Poetry, less well known are the many pages in his private journals devoted to the relationship between writing and reading. Here, for the first time, is the Concord Sage s energetic, exuberant, and unconventional advice on the idea of writing, focused and distilled by the preeminent Emerson biographer at work today.
Emerson advised that the way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent. First We Read, Then We Write contains numerous such surprises from every word we speak is million-faced to talent alone cannot make a writer but it is no mere collection of aphorisms and exhortations. Instead, in Robert Richardson s hands, the biographical and historical context in which Emerson worked becomes clear. Emerson s advice grew from his personal experience; in practically every moment of his adult life he was either preparing to write, trying to write, or writing. Richardson shows us an Emerson who is no granite bust but instead is a fully fleshed, creative person disarmingly willing to confront his own failures. Emerson urges his readers to try anything strategies, tricks, makeshifts speaking not only of the nuts and bolts of writing but also of the grain and sinew of his determination. Whether a writer by trade or a novice, every reader will find something to treasure in this volume. Fearlessly wrestling with the birthing stage of art, Emerson s counsel on being a reader and writer will be read and reread for years to come.

Robert D. Richardson is the author of William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism, which won the 2007 Bancroft Prize, Emerson: The Mind on Fire, which won both the Francis Parkman Prize and the Melcher Book Award and was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, which also won the Melcher Book Award.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781609383473
ISBN 10	1609383478
Title	First We Read, Then We Write
Author	Robert D Richardson
Series	Muse Books: The Iowa Series In Creativity And Writing
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	University of Iowa Press
Year published	2015-04-30
Number of pages	112
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.