Emerson's Brother

by Philip Lee Williams

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Few people know that Ralph Waldo Emerson had a mentally

challenged brother. Now, in a deeply moving novel in letters, noted writer Philip Lee Williams imagines the last year of this brother's sad but transcendent life as he lives with a farm family in Massachusetts. Emerson's Brother shows how this

brother, Bulkeley, deals in his own way with many of the themes Waldo did, including nature, self-reliance, and love.

Writing letters to his brother and friends such as Henry David Thoreau, Bulkeley Emerson aches with the need to express himself, trapped as he is in the prison of his own genetics. Though Bulkeley's journey toward the end of his life can be agonizing and filled with unfilled longing, there is a quiet acceptance, too, as he nears his time to become part of nature itself.

  • ISBN13 9780881462746
  • Publish Date 30 May 2012
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Mercer University Press
  • Format Paperback
  • Pages 224
  • Language English