FIRST WE READ, THEN WE WRITE: EMERSON ON THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Book ID/图书代码： 11720010B40951

English Summary/英文概要： Writing was the central passion of Emerson’s life. While his thoughts on the craft are well developed in “The Poet,” “The American Scholar,” Nature, “Goethe,” and “Persian Poetry,” less well known are the many pages in his private journals devoted to the relationship between writing and reading. Here, for the first time, is the Concord Sage’s energetic, exuberant, and unconventional advice on the idea of writing, focused and distilled by the preeminent Emerson biographer at work today.

Emerson advised that “the way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent.” First We Read, Then We Write contains numerous such surprises—from “every word we speak is million-faced” to “talent alone cannot make a writer”—but it is no mere collection of aphorisms and exhortations. Instead, in Robert Richardson’s hands, the biographical and historical context in which Emerson worked becomes clear. Emerson’s advice grew from his personal experience; in practically every moment of his adult life he was either preparing to write, trying to write, or writing. Richardson shows us an Emerson who is no granite bust but instead is a fully fleshed, creative person disarmingly willing to confront his own failures. Emerson urges his readers to try anything—strategies, tricks, makeshifts—speaking not only of the nuts and bolts of writing but also of the grain and sinew of his determination. Whether a writer by trade or a novice, every reader will find something to treasure in this volume. Fearlessly wrestling with “the birthing stage of art,” Emerson’s counsel on being a reader and writer will be read and reread for years to come.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 写作是爱默生生活的中心。他的名作包括《美国读者》等都是在读写之间日积月累出来的。这是第一次，有人将其写作的方法经过长期研究后整理出来供人参考。
爱默生认为，写作要如临其境。首先我们要多读，然后多写，才会有惊世之句迸出。作者根据其留下的传记以及参考历史资料，发现爱默生注重写作源于生活经验，他的作品来自亲身经历的生活。他让我们明白爱默生不是天才，也是一步一步靠着勤写多练才慢慢升华到这样的文学地位的。即使是大文豪爱默生也有失败的时候，更别说我们这些文学菜鸟了。无论你是否新手，你都可以从中领悟一些道理，然后勇往直前，无所畏惧。(兼职翻译-XJJ)

Awards/获奖情况："In this brief, elegant, and quietly passionate volume Robert Richardson has produced an invaluable handbook for the writer and aspirant writer, a copy of which should be presented to every student in every writing class around the world, for it is a serious course he is embarked on, in which he must learn to write not in the hope of expressing his puny self but to be, among other things, a guardian of language."---John Banville, The New York Review of Books
约翰•班维尔（John Banville），纽约书评：“简洁、优美的同时静静流泻着热情，不论何种资质的作家都会倍受裨益。当然，写作课的学生更必不可少。”

“Robert Richardson has done exquisite service both to Emerson and to the many readers this book will surely attract and leave with a deeper understanding of Emerson the writer. How many of us have read through all the journals to gather his thoughts, often private, uncontained in the essays, about the actual work of turning language into the fertile body of expressed thought? As in his biography of Emerson, The Mind on Fire, we are recipients again of Richardson’s scholarship, his unflagging, inquisitive, humanist unveiling of the great Emerson’s thoughts.”---Mary Oliver

“Richardson is Emerson’s foremost biographer, and he has culled the great man’s work for the kind of specific, timeless instruction that makes the difference between good writing and great writing. This is the book on writing that Emerson would have used to teach his lucky students. The chapter on sentences sparkles, and it alone is worth the purchase. Everyone who wants to learn about writing should read this book.”---Susan Cheever, author, American Bloomsbury and Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction

About the Author/作者介绍： Robert D. Richardson is the author of William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism, which won the 2007 Bancroft Prize, Emerson: The Mind on Fire, which won both the Francis Parkman Prize and the Melcher Book Award and was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, which also won the Melcher Book Award.
罗伯特•理查德森（Robert D. Richardson），作家，作品包括《威廉姆•詹姆士：美国现代主义神话》（William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism）（曾获07年班克洛夫特奖）、《爱默生：灵感迸发》（ Emerson: The Mind on Fire）（获弗朗西斯•巴克门奖、梅尔切•布克奖并入围美国国家书评奖）、《亨利•梭罗：理智一生》（ Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind）（获梅尔切•布克奖）。

Format:HARDCOVER

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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