Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred Kazin observes in his Introduction, "was a great writer who turned the essay into his own form." His famous essays, all twelve published in Essays: First Series (1841) and eight in Essays: Second Series (1844), are presented here for the first time in an authorized one-volume edition, incorporating all changes and corrections. Emerson did after its initial publication. The text is reproduced from the second and third volumes of The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a critical edition that draws on Emerson's vast body of studies of the last half century. Alfred R. Ferguson was founding editor of the edition, followed by Joseph Slater (until 1996).