Len Gougeon

Len Gougeon is a Distinguished Professor of American Literature at the University of Scranton. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and specializes in nineteenth-century American literature. His research has focused on the relationship of major antebellum literary figures to the reform movements of the time, especially antislavery and the woman's movement. His writings have appeared in major scholarly journals such as The New England Quarterly, American Literature, Studies in the American Renaissance, The Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, Modern Language Studies, South Atlantic Review, Nineteenth-Century Prose, and others as well as numerous collections of critical essays.

A past-President of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, he is the author of Virtue's Hero: Emerson, Antislavery, and Reform (University of Georgia Press, 1990, 2010), Emerson & Eros: The Making of a Cultural Hero (SUNY Press, 2007), and co-editor of Emerson's Antislavery Writings (Yale University Press 1995, 2001). In 2008 he received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society's Distinguished Achievement Award.

His most recent book is "Emerson's Truth, Emerson's Wisdom: Transcendental Advice for Everyday Life" (American Transcendental Books, 2010). Based upon over forty years of reading and writing about Emerson, this book seeks to introduce Ralph Waldo Emerson's Transcendental philosophy to a broad audience of modern readers. As those acquainted with Emerson's writings know, they can be challenging, especially to average readers. In an effort to address this difficulty, this book takes the unique approach of coupling a generous sampling of Emerson's essential writings (essays, poems, lectures, and addresses) with a discussion of the biographical and historical circumstances from which they arose. Emerson's essay "Experience" and his poem "Threnody," for example, are far more approachable when they are directly connected to the untimely and tragic death of his infant son, Waldo. His essay "Politics" can be more easily understood in the context of his crusade against slavery. In presenting Emerson in his private as well as his public roles as husband, father, friend, and citizen, it is possible to trace the thread of his experience through the fabric of his thought. The second goal of this book is to indicate how Emerson's timeless wisdom can serve readers today.

The text presents several of Emerson's seminal works in their entirety. These texts are presented in chapters that deal with such topics as "Discovering Spiritual Truth," "Self-Reliance," "Personal Love and Cosmic Love," "Society and Self," "Fate and Power," and "Wealth and Success." Each of these chapters is subdivided into shorter thematic sections that discuss topics such as "The Search for Faith," "Vanquishing Fear and Anxiety," "Dealing with Bereavement and Loss," "The Meaning of Suffering," "Developing Personal Power," and several others. The purpose here is to encourage the kind of thoughtful and even meditative approach that Emerson's writings demand. In each section, the reader is presented with Emerson's profound and moving insights as well as commentary by the author that reflects upon Emerson's ideas and relates them to the problems and challenges of everyday life. Additionally, the poetic quality of Emerson's prose is emphasized in typographically shortened lines with generous word spacing. As Emerson once said, "I would have my book read as I have read my favorite books, not with explosion and astonishment, a marvel and a rocket, but a friendly and agreeable influence stealing like the scent of a flower; or the sight of a new landscape on a traveller." This book seeks to facilitate that process for the everyday reader. It also simultaneously encourages and supports the kind of personal self-reliance and self-understanding that are the hallmarks of Emerson's Transcendental philosophy.