Emerson's Essay "Immortality": The Problem of Authorship

AN unanswered question in Emerson scholarship involves the JLJ Lprovenance of his last book, Letters and Social Aims. Although the volume was conceived in I 870 and part of it had reached proof by I 872, it was not published until December I 875. By then Emerson's mental powers had declined; Letters and Social Aims required Ellen Emerson's help and, finally, editing by James Elliot Cabot to reach print. Cabot's preface to an edition published after Emerson's death gives the book ambiguous status in the Emerson canon: "There is nothing here that he did not write, and he gave his full approval to whatever was done in -the way of selection and arrangement; but I cannot say that he applied his mind very closely to the matter. He was pleased, in a general way, that the work should go on, but it may be a question exactly how far he sanctioned it." ' Edward Waldo Emerson, commenting after Cabot's death, added that "Mr. Emerson always disclaimed the credit for Letters and Social Aims, and in speaking to Mr. Cabot always called it 'your book"' (W, VIII, viii). In his preface, Cabot singles out "Immortality," which concludes Letters and Social Aims, as an example of how "selection and arrangement" apparently worked in the composition of the volume: