Three Roads Back - by Robert D Richardson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book explores resilience by tracing the linked stories of how Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and William James dealt with personal tragedy: for Emerson, the death of his young wife and, eleven years later, his five-year-old son; for Thoreau, the death of his brother; and for James, the death of his beloved cousin Minny. Weaving together biographical detail with quotations from the writers' journals and letters, Richardson shows readers how each of these writers grappled with loss and grief and ultimately achieved a level of resilience. Emerson lost his Unitarian faith but found solace in the study of nature; Thoreau leaned on the natural world's capacity for regeneration, and the comparatively small role played by individual persons; James lit upon a notion of self-governance and emotional malleability that would underwrite much of his work as a psychologist and philosopher. All three, Richardson suggests, emerged from their grief with a new way of seeing, one shaped by a belief in, as Emerson would write, "the deep remedial force that underlies all facts.""--

Book Synopsis

From their acclaimed biographer, a final, powerful book about how Emerson, Thoreau, and William James forged resilience from devastating loss, changing the course of American thought

In Three Roads Back, Robert Richardson, the author of magisterial biographies of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and William James, tells the connected stories of how these foundational American writers and thinkers dealt with personal tragedies early in their careers. For Emerson, it was the death of his young wife and, eleven years later, his five-year-old son; for Thoreau, it was the death of his brother; and for James, it was the death of his beloved cousin Minnie Temple. Filled with rich biographical detail and unforgettable passages from the journals and letters of Emerson, Thoreau, and James, these vivid and moving stories of loss and hard-fought resilience show how the writers' responses to these deaths helped spur them on to their greatest work, influencing the birth and course of American literature and philosophy.

In reaction to his traumatic loss, Emerson lost his Unitarian faith and found solace in nature. Thoreau, too, leaned on nature and its regenerative power, discovering that "death is the law of new life," an insight that would find expression in Walden. And James, following a period of panic and despair, experienced a redemptive conversion and new ideas that would drive his work as a psychologist and philosopher. As Richardson shows, all three emerged from their grief with a new way of seeing, one shaped by a belief in what Emerson called "the deep remedial force that underlies all facts."

An inspiring book about resilience and the new growth and creativity that can stem from devastating loss, Three Roads Back is also an extraordinary account of the hidden wellsprings of American thought.

Review Quotes

"[Richardson] chooses passages that get to the heart of each writer's thinking while also yielding new angles and exposing new complexities."---Kristen Case, Thoreau Society Bulletin

"A powerful book."---Doris Kearns Goodwin, New York Times

"The effect of this little volume, which looks hardly more than a pamphlet, is wholly out of proportion to its modest dimensions. . . . Three Roads Back is not only a consideration of the thought and actions of a group of singular historical figures: it is also a treatise for our time."---John Banville, New York Review of Books

"Three Roads Back [is Richardson's] final gift to the world."---Paul Krause, University Bookman

"A New Yorker Best Book We've Read This Year"

"[A] moving study."---Gordon Fraser, Times Literary Supplement

"[A] profound volume. . . . [Richardson] suggests that [Emerson, Thoreau, and James's] responses to loss can help guide modern-day readers who are navigating bereavement themselves. . . . [An] elegant and affecting book."---Barbara Spindel, Christian Science Monitor

"An elegant and useful rumination on resilience as a practice, achievable through study, creation, companionship, and deep reflection."-- "New Yorker"

"[An] extraordinarily cogent and exquisitely concise exploration of the life-affecting course of early grief."---Diane Cole, Washington Post

"[A] slim but profoundly affecting volume."-- "Christian Science Monitor"

"A concise exploration of how three major 19th-century thinkers overcame the experience of personal tragedy. . . . Three Roads Back is Richardson's legacy condensed, his grace note to posterity, the massive effort behind his three great books . . . refracted in the shimmering prism of a hundred pages of perfectly polished prose. . . . [A] lovely, uplifting book."---Christoph Irmscher, Wall Street Journal

"A book worth savoring, especially if you're grappling with grief and loss. . . . [a] beautifully authentic book. . . . Richardson is an excellent guide."---Emily Blackshear, Brooklyn Rail

"[A] remarkably rich study. . . . [Richardson] expertly frames the emotional and intellectual lives of these three significant artistic figures and demonstrates the relevance, for anyone, of what they accomplished in their profound negotiations with loss. . . . A stirring and keenly perceptive examination of bereavement and recovery."-- "Kirkus Reviews starred review"

"Stimulating. . . . [Three Roads Back is] a moving, candid group portrait. Fans and students of American literature will find this worth picking up."-- "Publishers Weekly"

About the Author

Robert D. Richardson (1934-2020) was the author of the acclaimed biographies William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism, Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, and Emerson: The Mind on Fire. He was a recipient of the Bancroft and Francis Parkman prizes and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Megan Marshall is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life.