THE LIFE OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON (592 pp.) Ralph L. Rusk Scribner ($6).
In many ways Ralph Waldo Emerson is the most satisfying of American writers. The fame of other great New Englanders seems to vary with literary revivals, new discoveries and new editions, but neither changes in literary fashions nor new research have reduced Emerson's stature in the slightest; he grows more impressive, in his unassuming serenity, as more is known about him. He is as eloquent as Herman Melville but without Melville's frequent posturing and bombast, as civilized as Henry James but without James's mannerisms, as imaginative as Poe...