Last Updated on July 29, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 181

Essays: First and Second Series (1990), edited by Douglas Crase, combines all of the essays that Emerson originally published in two separate volumes in 1841 and 1844.

Download Self-Reliance Study Guide

Subscribe Now

"The Concord Hymn'' and Other Poems (1996) is a collection of Emerson's most well-known poems.

Walden (1854), by Emerson's friend and student Henry David Thoreau, is the world-famous autobiographical record of Thoreau's time spent living in solitude in the woods near Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts. Walden has become an enduringly popular literary expression of American transcendentalism, individualism, and naturalism.

Little Women (1868) is a classic novel based on the childhood of its author, Louisa May Alcott, the daughter of Emerson's friend and fellow transcendentalist Bronson Alcott. The book tells the story of the March family, following daughters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy from childhood to adulthood. The Marches are transcendentalists who value self-reliance, individualism, compassion, and education above material and social achievement.

Emerson called Leaves of Grass (1855), poetry by Walt Whitman, "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that American has yet produced.’’ It is now considered one of the most important works of poetry in the English language.