The journals of 1835-1838, perhaps the richest Emerson had yet
written, cover the pivotal years when he brought to Concord his
second wife, Lydia Jackson of Plymouth, published Nature (1836),
and wrote "The American Scholar" (1837) and the Divinity School
Address (1838). As he turned from the pulpit to the lecture
platform in the 1830's, the journals became more and more
repository for the substance of future lectures; his annual
winter series, particularly those dealing with The Philosophy of
History, in 1836-1837, and Human Culture, in 1837-1838, were
drawn largely from materials contained in this volume. Along
with lecture material, the journals of these years include
Emerson's notes on his extensive reading, expressions of his
griefs and joys, and his perennial reflections on man and his
relation to nature and the divine. The birth of his son Waldo in
October of 1836 compensated perhaps for the death of his beloved
brother Charles the previous May. New friendships with Margaret
Fuller, Henry Thoreau, and