Nietzsche and Emerson — (1993)

An Elective Affinity

By George J. Stack

"George Stack has rendered Emersonian scholarship an invaluable service in tackling the first in-depth study of the often observed but rarely analyzed affinity between the American essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. This service is the more impressive because Stack's forte is not literary studies, but philosophy.... Stack's unique perspective on Emerson, as viewed through Nietzsche's eyes, has enabled him to create one of the most helpful critical commentaries upon Emerson's dialectic.... Stack's insight, occasioned by seeing Emerson through the lens of Nietzsche, illuminates his controversial prose style...as well as has been done by...literary critics."

Arminda Gilbert — Nineteenth-Century Prose

"Stack's lively, well-documented, and illuminating study offers detailed and overwhelming evidence not only of the inner affinities between Emerson and Niezsche, but of a deep and extensive direct influence of Emerson on Nietzsche. Highly Recommended."

Choice

"With impressive scholarship and serious intent, Stack convincingly argues that Emerson's radical thoughts profoundly influenced the development of Nietzsche's central ideas ... highly recommended for all philosophy and literary collections."

Library Journal

George J. Stack traces the sources of ideas and theories that have long been considered the exclusive province of Friedrich Nietzsche to the surprisingly radical writings of the American essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Nietzsche and Emerson makes us see Emerson's writings in a new, more intensified light and presents a new perspective on Nietzsche's philosophy. Stack traces how the rich theoretical ideas and literary images of Emerson entered directly into the existential dimension of Nietzsche's thought and hence into the stream of what has been considered a distinctively European intellectual movement.