The Annotated Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edited By David Mikics; Foreword By Philliop Lopate, c. 2012

My first thought, going through a brief biography of Waldo Emerson and the titles of the writings in this book, I think of this:

• Emerson: 1803 - 1882: Boston, a very, very serious thinker, writer, speaker
• US hitting its stride as a country almost 100 years after the Revolutionary War
• Mark Twain: 1836 - 1920: Missouri, a wit, a writer, a speaker, an entertainer
• US hitting its stride as a member of the world's nations, but not yet the global leader; perhaps the teenage to the adults in Europe
• US Civil War; close confident of Ulysses S. Grant; ensured his family's wealth after his death
• Spanish-American War
• saw WWI in the last years of his life

Emerson, Ralph Waldo: from The Annotated Emerson, edited by David Mikics / foreword by Phillip Lopate:

• a giant of American literature; perhaps the greatest essayist, certainly one of our finest nonfiction prose writers; but seems to be forgotten; influence was less than deserved; I suppose to some extent, folks "outgrew" essays;
• "Emerson is our Shakespeare"; a born rebel;
• I've never "read" Emerson; I need to get to know him; I wonder what Harold Bloom has to say about him.
• went by his middle name, Waldo.
• Boston, MA; b. 1803; d. 1882 (age 78)
• major event in his life, the Civil War? 
• coming of age years: War of 1812
  
• led the Transcendentalist Movement (see below). New England, 1820s and 1830s; similar to Unitary church as taught at Harvard Divinity School

The writings:

• Nature (1836 -- 33 years old)
• The American Scholar (1837)
• Letter to Martin Van Buren, US President
• The Divinity School Address (1838 - 35 years old)
• Essays, first series
• Essays, second series
• An Address ... on ... the Anniversary of the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West Indies (1844)
• From Representative Men (1850)
• Montaigne; or, the Skeptic
• Shakespeare; or, the Poet
• From English Traits (1856)
• First Visit to England
• Stonehenge
• John Brown (1860)
• From The Conduct Of Life 
• From Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1852)
• Thoreau (1862)
• From Poems (1845) -- still pre-Civil War
• From May-Day and Other Pieces (1867 -- age 64 years old, just after the Civil War)

After reading the introduction, foreword, "The American Scholar," I want next to read his essay on Shakespeare and the two writings on his visit to England. "First Visit to England" and "Stonehenge."