“In Search of Emerson in Europe” July 18

Scott Monument in Edinburgh, Scotland
(photo by Bill Anderson)

The celebrated Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson made three voyages to Europe. The first was in 1833, when Emerson, searching for inspirational, published writers, went to England and Scotland. Photographer Bill Anderson re-visited Emerson’s trips to England and Scotland and returns to Camden with an illustrated talk on Emerson’s investigations, on Wednesday afternoon, July 18, at 3:00 pm.

On this first trip, Emerson sailed first to Malta and spent several months in Italy before travelling through Switzerland and Paris on his way to the British Isles. In Liverpool, he especially sought out Thomas Carlyle. When he returned to Concord, he began his writing career. In 1847-48, as a successful published writer and lecturer, Emerson lectured in England and Scotland. On the trip he renewed his friendship with Carlyle. The last trip was in 1872 after a terrible fire that nearly destroyed his studio library, and he traveled with his daughter Ellen. Bill Anderson recreated the trips to taste the difference between the soft Concord airs and the intense industrialized, coal-polluted English air. He made some startling discoveries in the Scottish countryside that yielded some insight about Concord’s Sage when he met the soon-to-be Sage of Chelsea, Thomas Carlyle.  “All of which is to say,” says Anderson, “that Anderson is not Emerson, so come sit for an hour and see how the travels unfolded.”

Road to Dumfries, Scotland (photo by Bill Anderson). From Edinburgh, Emerson traveled to Dumfries by horse and carriage, up this road (since paved) in search of inspiration.