Criticism

Review: A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England

R. Todd Felton. Berkeley: Roaring Forties Press, 2006.

If you are a fan of any of the Transcendentalists, or even interested in the making of American thought and literature, then this is your book. Chances are that you will soon find yourself planning a trip to Massachusetts, for you will understand the intimate ties between the place and these people. This may also be the beginning of a greater journey into yourself.

First, this is a beautiful book, as one in an ArtPlace Series might be expected to be. It is filled with pictures, past and present, as well as current maps of key places. But more important, this is an excellent introduction to these writers and the impact their idealism has had on Americans. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Amos Alcott, George Ripley, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Emily Dickinson are placed firmly in their historical, social, philosophical, and literary contexts. But the most important context of all was their varying relationships with each other, for this is one group in which the friction of ideas generated even more.

Each of these writers also resides firmly in his or her chosen places, primarily Boston, Concord, Salem, Brook Farm, and Amherst, places which still speak of their accomplishments to some degree. And the careful reader of this book will know just where to track them. Details can be important. For example, the description of Emerson's writing table (now in a Concord museum), "a spinning circular table with drawers fitted into the sides," a kind of "lazy Susan" of ideas, does much to illuminate his circular yet almost haphazard literary style. Likewise, visualizing Walen Pond and the woods or Brook Farm helps bring Walden and The Blithedale Romance to life.

I did find it rather odd that Felton pays so much attention to Hawthorne, one of the cleverest critics of the transcendentalists, and Dickinson, who never met any of them except on the page. But his journeys to Salem and Amherst justify their inclusion. However, I would have liked to have seen more of Margaret Fuller and something of Walt Whitman, who credited his birth as a poet to Emerson (though he was of New York, not New England).

There is much here for any reader, whether one beginning a journey into the writing of the Transcendentalists or an experienced scholar. The descriptions of their thought and works are clear and enlightening. The author sends the reader on a journey without intrusion, like the best of guides, and the cost of the ticket is quite reasonable. Any student of American thought and literature should be sure to consult this guide before making the journey, whether physically or in the imagination.

Ann M. Woodlief, Reviewer (June 2006)