Books by the dead for the dead

 Robert Richardson on Emerson's reading choices:

Emerson was in perpetual quest of basic books, books that bore original witness, books that met Montaigne's stern query "What do I know?" -- books that were not just distilled from other books and that, as Whitman said, would probably pass away.  Emerson wanted books that declared solidly, without derivation or support, without apology or disclaimer, what the author observed and knew....  

Emerson was a vast reader, and it sometimes seems as though no book published from 1820 until his death evaded his attention completely.  But he was not an indiscriminate reader. There where whole categories of books he would not read.  He would not read theological or academic controversy, for example.  He disliked books intended to comment on other books.  In a blunt moment he called them "books by the dead for the dead." He wanted original firsthand accounts -- travel books, memoirs, testaments, statements of faith or discovery, poems.  He would read your poem or your novel but not your opinion on other people's poems or novels.