Description

Most Nietzsche scholars recognize that Nietzsche read Emerson consistently throughout his working life. Stanley Hubbard's 1958 analysis shows that Nietzsche revisited his copies of Emerson's essays at many different points in his career. More 1 recently, Thomas Brobjer has shown that Emerson's works are among the most heavily annotated in Nietzsche's library. Most Nietzsche scholars also recognize that Nietzsche 2 deeply admired Emerson. As Nietzsche himself once said, "Emerson: Never have I felt so at home in a book, and in my home, as - I may not praise it, it is too close to me."3 Yet the connection has received little treatment in the secondary literature, and outside of Nietzsche scholarship it remains virtually unknown. As Stanley Cavell once said, "no matter how often this connection of Nietzsche to Emerson is stated, no matter how obvious to anyone who cares to verify it, it stays incredible, it is always in a forgotten state."4