Last week, we talked about how Emerson thought of his 263 journals as a savings bank for his best ideas.
This week, let’s look at how he actually drew from that bank.
Emerson was in constant contact with his journals. Of course, he couldn’t carry all 263 volumes around, but he always had his current notebook at hand and relied on an indexed system to revisit the older ones.
Starting next week, we’ll dig into his indexing methods. For now, it’s worth noticing that Emerson didn’t just write in his journals—he read and reread them, again and again. He notated passages, added footnotes, and scribbled afterthoughts in the margins long after the original entries were made. He paid attention to where his thinking had changed, what still felt useful, and what he no longer believed.
That’s the real secret: Emerson didn’t keep journals just to fill shelves. He wrote them to return to them, to study them, and to put them to work.
This Week’s Journaling Homework
📝YOUR HOMEWORK: Your Emersonian assignment this week is simple: gather up all your old, half-filled journals and give them a home on your shelf. Then, open them. Read through your past entries. Notice how far you’ve come, and pay attention to the way your ideas and logic have evolved.
Next week, we’ll start the process of indexing these journals so you can get real mileage out of them.
👋 Until next week, read slowly – take notes – apply the ideas.
-Eddy
—————————-
Works Cited:
Richardson, Robert D. First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process. University of Iowa Press, 2009.
Richardson, Robert D. Emerson: The Mind on Fire. University of California Press, 1995.
