Mailer and Emerson

Lipton’s Journal and the Dissident Soul

Authors

  • Robert J. Begiebing Southern New Hampshire University Author

Keywords:

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lipton’s Journal, journals, dissent, Transcendentalism

Abstract

Norman Mailer and Ralph Waldo Emerson both used their journals to think through the concepts that would inform their future work. The journals of both authors, in short, demonstrate the mind in action, the creative energy of thinking. Emerson’s journals reveal a dialogue with oneself, as does Mailer’s Lipton’s Journal. It is as if both authors have a neo-Socratic faith that the seeds of truth are within us and are best elicited by interrogation (in this case self-interrogation) and free association. Socratic self-knowledge then becomes the inner truth that is the source of a philosophy—an approach to life and literary work—in opposition to the society within which one lives. The rebellious path to such a journal is through solitude.

Author Biography

  • Robert J. Begiebing, Southern New Hampshire University

    Robert J. Begiebing is Professor of English Emeritus at Southern New Hampshire University and the author of nine books (including criticism, fiction, and nonfiction) and many articles. His most recent book, The Territory Around Us: Literary and Political Journalism, 1982–2015, was published in 2015. He is on the board of the Norman Mailer Society.

Downloads

Published

2020-10-15

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Begiebing, Robert J. “Mailer and Emerson: Lipton’s Journal and the Dissident Soul”. The Mailer Review, vol. 14, no. 1, Oct. 2020, pp. 84–99, https://mailerreview.org/journal/article/view/723.