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Founded in 1989, the Ralph Waldo Emerson
Society fosters scholarship about and appreciation of the
life and writings of a great American author. With some 200 members
in 11 countries, the Emerson Society is primarily an educational
and literary organization. Its annual meeting is held during the
conference of the American Literature Association.
The Emerson Society promotes scholarship and Emerson's legacy in several
ways:
- Emerson Society Papers (ESP), the official publication
of the Society, is a newsletter published each fall and spring. ESP
features brief scholarly articles, book reviews, an annual Emerson bibliography,
abstracts of conference papers, and news of Emerson scholars and updates
on research.
- The Society's official web site, www.emersonsociety.org,
contains a wealth of information on Emerson and his times, including
bibliographies, links to primary works on-line, photographs, a chronology,
and a history of the Society.
- The Society sponsors two scholarly panels at the annual conference
of the American Literature Association in May and programs for a wide
audience of Emerson admirers presented each July in Concord, Massachusetts,
in conjunction with the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering..
- A Distinguished Achievement Award recognizes scholars who have made
important contributions to Emerson studies.
- The Society has endorsed efforts of the Walden Woods Project to preserve
historic sites associated with the Concord writers.
- A research collection, housed at the Thoreau
Institute in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is a growing archive of books,
editions, offprints, maps, and Emerson Society records.
- In 2003, the Society organized an extended bicentennial celebration
of Emerson's birth, "Emerson in 2003," which included exhibits
and programs in Boston, Cambridge, and Concord. The Society's events
were coordinated by Ronald Bosco and Joel Myerson. Other organizations
co-sponsoring events with us included the Houghton Library of Harvard
University, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Concord Free Public
Library, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association, and the Concord
Museum. Future special events are planned.
- Members of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society receive ESP, are
eligible to review books for the newsletter and serve as panelists at
society activities, receive discounts on subscriptions to ESQ: A
Journal of the American Renaissance, and may subscribe to the listserv
that the Society maintains on the Internet.
For more detailed information about the Society, log on to the Society's
web site, www.emersonsociety.org;
contact the President, Phyllis Cole,
or the Secretary/Treasurer, Robert D.
Habich; or see Past President Wesley T. Mott's overview, "Ralph
Waldo Emerson Society," in Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook
1999 (Detroit: Gale, 1999), pp. 344-46.
To join the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, print and complete the membership
form and mail it and a check for $10 (USD only) payable to "The
Emerson Society" to
Robert D. Habich
Secretary/Treasurer
Ralph Waldo Emerson Society
Department of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
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