“The scholarship behind this brief study is superior, indeed prodigious.”
Phyllis Cole, Past President of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society

“I have sensed for some time that Emerson is important to the study of rhetoric—and, particularly, American rhetoric—but I have not found a thorough summary explanation of how that is so. Roger Thompson’s unpretentious and careful book provides precisely that sort of explanation in ways that offer a fresh perspective on Emerson’s rhetorical theory and practice. ”  
Gregory Clark, Former Editor of RSQ and Past President of Rhetoric Society of America


Nominated for an RSA and an MLA Book Award.
Join the Emerson Society: www.emersonsociety.org 

Roger’s Articles about Emerson
“Emerson, Plato, and the Search for True Rhetoric.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 48.2 (2015): 117-138.

“Emerson and America.” Ralph Waldo Emerson in Context. Ed. Wes Mott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 12-20.

"'Habit of Heat': Emerson, Belletristic Rhetoric, and the Role of the Imagination."College English 69.3 (January 2007): 260-282.

"'Fate,' September 11, and an Ethical Hermeneutics." Pedagogy 3.2 (Fall 2002): 420-425.

"Ralph Waldo Emerson and the American Kairos." Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis. Ed. Phillip Sipiora and James S. Baumlin. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2002. 187-198.

"Emerson, Divinity, and Rhetoric in Transcendentalist Nature Writing and Twentieth- Century Eco-Poetry." Ecological Poetry: A Critical Introduction. Ed. J. Scott Bryson. Salt Lake City: Utah UP, 2002. 29-38.