These are the journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) in PDF Acrobat Reader format. They derive from the 1904-14 edition of the Journals edited by Emerson's son Edward and form 5000 pages of material. Volume 3 (1833-35) covers Emerson's resignation from his position as Minister and his Grand Tour of Europe. This journal describes his impressions of the art and architecture of Italy, his impressions of people and places as he journied north to Switzerland, France and then England. In England he met Wordsworth, Coleridge and his life-long friend Thomas Carlyle and began to work on his first book, Nature.

From the Publisher:

        The Digital Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson is an archive provided by The Ralph Waldo Emerson Institute and www.rwe.org for the use and convenience of interested students of the life and works of America’s Founding Thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The source of these digital Journals is the ten-volume Edward Emerson edition, originally published in Boston from 1904 through 1914, and comprising over 5,000 pages of material.

        The main advantages of the Digital Journal Archive over the printed volumes are the search and read aloud features available in Acrobat Reader. Users can find names, dates, places, and, most important, words and ideas in a relative instant. Emerson used his journals as his “savings bank,” as he called them, to record and then use thoughts and insights for later use in essays, lectures and sermons. Therefore, the journals hide the seed of an entire essay, but they also reveal more private thoughts and personal observations which never found their way into the Complete Works. In all, the Journals are a fascinating and valuable record of a lifetime of inspiration and insight.

         Richard G Geldard, PhD,

         General Editor, Digital Archive