The Conduct of Life is a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson published in 1860 and revised in 1876. In this volume, Emerson sets out to answer "the question of the times:" "How shall I live?"[1] It is composed of nine essays, each preceded by a poem. These nine essays are largely based on lectures Emerson held throughout the country, including for a young, mercantile audience in the lyceums of the Midwestern boomtowns of the 1850s.[2]
The Conduct of Life has been named as both one of Emerson's best works and one of his worst. It was one of Emerson's most successful publications and has been identified as a source of influence for a number of writers, including Friedrich Nietzsche.[3]
- ^ Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Conduct of Life. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, reprinted by Forgotten Books, [1860]: 1.
- ^ Cayton, Mary Kupiec. "The Making of an American Prophet: Emerson, His Audiences, and the Rise of the Culture Industry in Nineteenth-Century America." In: Lawrence Buell, ed., Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Collection of Critical Essays. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1992: 77-100.
- ^ Krusche, Thomas. R.W. Emersons Naturauffassung und ihre philosophischen Ursprünge - Eine Interpretation des Emersonschen Denkens aus dem Blickwinkel des Deutschen Idealismus. Tübingen: Günter Narr, 1987: 252.