GLR September-October 2023

overdue for another marriage, and he found a relatively wealthy 31-year-old woman named Lydia Jackson. Emerson ’ s decid edly bloodless, businesslike marriage proposal, coming in Jan uary of 1835, defined the terms of their union: he would treat herwith “ deep and tender respect, ” sinceher “ earnest and noble mind ” inspired so much goodness in his soul. Nevertheless, he dampened any romantic expectations by assuring her that his love could only manifest itself in a “ new and higher way. ” He declared that she was “ so in love with what I love ” that “ no re moteness of condition could separate us ”— perhaps a veiled

“ F OREVERA S ORTOF B EAUTIFUL E NEMY ” A FTER A LONG HISTORY of denial by academic historians and crit ics, Thoreau ’ s sexual nonconformity is a matter of widespread agreement, if not consensus. However, no one has gone so far as to suggest that he was Emerson ’ s lover. Emerson ’ s account of how they first met has a starry-eyed quality: “ He was not quite out of college ... when I first saw him. ” Emerson helped examine Thoreau for a Harvard rhetoric class on February 25, 1835, which was one month after his marriage proposal to Lydia

reference to his nontraditional sexual orien tation. His essay “ Spiritual Laws ” declared that the soul harbors a “ photometer, ” a metaphorical “ irritable goldleaf and tinfoil ” device for measuring light. According to Louisa May Alcott, he “ defended his lack of affectionate gestures to [Lydia] by say ing he was a ‘ photometer ’ not a stove: he could measure light but not radiate heat. ”

Jackson. Thoreau, who was fourteen years younger than Emerson, graduated in 1837 — a few months after the publication of Emer son ’ s first book, Nature . Thoreau ’ s Harvard classmate David Greene Haskins found it “ remarkable ” tosee how Thoreau had so quickly undergone a “ chemical ” transformation into Emerson ’ s doppelgänger, “ due to his frequent contacts

“ Self Reliance ” has rarely been recognized as one of history ’ s first manifestos for people to be honest about their sexual nonconformity.

Emerson ’ s own brush with a same-sex love affair was first proposed in 1976 when Jonathan Ned Katz published his groundbreaking Gay American History . Emerson ’ s baffling, paralyzing crush on Harvard classmate Martin Gay is fairly well documented by Katz and his successors. However, the field of Transcendentalist studies has largely chosen to trivialize its im plications — when it hasn ’ t avoided them entirely. This tendency is nowhere more apparent than in Emerson ’ s relationship with Henry David Thoreau.

and intimate intercourse with Mr. Emerson, beginning from the very time of his leaving college. ” InThoreau ’ s mannerisms, said Haskins, and in “ the tones and inflexions of his voice, in his modes of expression, even in the hesitations and pauses of his speech, he had become the counterpart of Mr. Emerson. ” Hask ins swore that he could have recognized Thoreau ’ s original voice in the dark, but in Emerson ’ s study, he decided to delib erately close his eyes while they conversed and found himself “ unable to determine with certainty which was speaking. ” The

September – October 2023

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