Thoreau Annual Gathering, July 8-12, 2026

Ralph Waldo Emerson Society

“Give Me Health and a Day”: Emerson and Health, Illness, and Unity

Emerson writes in Nature (1836), “Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.”  Emerson’s writing frequently invokes good health as a means (and sometimes metaphor) of personal and spiritual unity.  As he writes in “Self-Culture,” “what is sickness, but the forerunner of death.”  As well, Emerson’s continual use of eyes and seeing as indicative of individual and spiritual well-being constitutes a major motif of his writing.  Emerson also experienced ill health as well as that of his family, including the early death of his first son Waldo and his first wife Ellen, and the mental breakdowns of his brothers Charles and Bulkeley, which Emerson described to his aunt Mary Moody Emerson as the “constitutional calamity” of the family.  Also, in 1825 Emerson began to lose his eyesight, which cost him a year’s worth of reading and study; his recovery spurred a more invested use of healthy vision, perception, the individual self, and self-culture.

Papers for this panel, in keeping with the Thoreau Gathering’s theme, might consider Emerson’s work relating to health, illness, and, as he describes in “Self-Culture,” “living well.”  Please submit abstracts of 300 words, along with a brief (100 word) bio to Bill Scalia at bscalia@alumni.lsu.edu by January 31, 2026.