Emerson in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, F

Fredrika Bremer, From The Homes of the New World; Impressions of America (1853)

Born in Finland, novelist Fredrika Bremer spent most of her life in Sweden. She visited America in the late 1840s and early 1850s, and her very popular book, The Homes of the New World; Impressions of America, in which she mingled common gossip and “Old World” prejudices with extended commentary on American culture at midcentury, is among the best produced in the genre during this period. Like John Ross Dix’s Transatlantic Tracings; or, Sketches of Persons and Scenes in America (1853), Bremer’s treatment of America was appealing to both European and American readers, and especially so given her access to all the major literary and intellectual figures of the day. In the selections that follow, Bremer humanizes Emerson for her international audience, providing glimpses into his home life, the “griefs” he sustained in the loss of his brothers Edward and Charles and young son Waldo, his relationships with the leading lights of Boston and New York, and the sources of his immense popularity as a writer and lecturer. Bremer’s admiration of Emerson is measured at times; however, she openly grants to his credit an unusual consistency between his public and private lives, as when, for instance, after hearing him lecture on “The Spirit of the Times,” she remarks, “I do not . . . think him more remarkable as [a lecturer in public] than during a private conversation on some subject of deep interest. There is the same deep, strong, and at the same time melodious . . . tone; the same . . . happy phraseology, naturally brilliant; the same calm and reposing strength” (p. 224). Since most passages in The Homes of the New World are undated, in the excerpts that follow, dates have been editorially supplied from America of the Fifties: Letters of Fredrika Bremer, ed. Adolph B. Benson (New York: AmericanScandinavian Foundation, 1924). [] From The Homes of the New World; Impressions of America (
) Fredrika Bremer [ December .] Just returned from my little journey . . . to Concord, the oldest town in Massachusetts, and the residence of Ralph Waldo Emerson. We drove there, and arrived in the midst of a regular snow-storm. But the rail-way carriages are well warmed, and one sits there in beautiful ease and comfort, excepting that one gets well shook, for the rail-roads here are much more uneven than those on which I have traveled in Europe. Emerson came to meet us, walking down the little avenue of spruce firs which leads from his house bare-headed amid the falling snow.He is a quiet, nobly grave figure, his complexion pale, with strongly marked features, and dark hair. He seemed to me a younger man, but not so handsome as I had imagined him; his exterior less fascinating, but more significant. He occupied himself with us, however, and with me in particular, as a lady and a foreigner ,kindly and agreeably.He is a very peculiar character,but too cold and hypercritical to please me entirely; a strong, clear eye, always looking out for an ideal, which he never finds realized on earth; discovering wants, shortcomings , imperfections; and too strong and healthy himself to understand other people’s weaknesses and sufferings, for he even despises suffering as a weakness unworthy of higher natures. This singularity of character leads one to suppose that he has never been ill: sorrows, however, he has had, and has felt them deeply, as some of his most beautiful poems prove; nevertheless , he has only allowed himself to be bowed for a short time by these griefs—the deaths of two beautiful and beloved brothers, as well as that of a beautiful little boy, his eldest son. He has also lost his first wife, after having been married scarcely a year. Emerson is now married for the second time, and has three children. His pretty little boy, the youngest of his children, seems to be, in particular, dear to him. Mrs. Emerson has beautiful eyes, full of feeling, but she appears delicate , and is in character very different to her husband. He interested me without warming me. That critical, crystalline, and cold nature may be very estimable, quite healthy, and, in its way, beneficial for those who possess it, and also for others who allow themselves to be measured and criticised by it; but—for me—David’s heart with David’s songs! I shall return to this home in consequence of a very kind invitation to do so from Emerson and his wife, and in order that I may see more of...