Ralph Waldo Emerson is probably the most famous writer the USA has produced. In 2000 and 2001 I found unpublished letters at the Massachusetts Historical Society by 20 year old "Waldo," his beloved brothers, their mother, and their Aunt Mary. I was allowed to handle the original letters and make transcriptions of them. These 3 screenplays are imagined scenes containing parts of them. (The fourth screenplay "Ellinelli" will be a separate book.) The letters are extremely interesting in themselves and also serve as an excellent introduction to R.W. Emerson -- though a person need not ever read a word he later wrote to appreciate them. Written between 1823 and 1828 the letters let us visit Harvard when it was a school for boys. We also visit the University of Göttingen where the oldest brother was studying theology. William's letters contain much about German university life in the 1820's -- as seen by a provincial, very religious, Puritanical, but intelligent and truthful young American. A highlight of William's two years in Germany was his hiking trip to Weimar where he got to spend half an hour with Germany's respected poet, Wolfgang von Goethe. During their talk William tells of his religious crisis in the course of his studies with Professor Johan Gottfried Eichendorf. William has come to see the Bible as a collection of ancient texts -- written by men, not dictated directly by God. How can he now in good conscience preach doctrines in which he himself no longer believes? Goethe tells him not to worry. What have his private beliefs to do with his simple parishioners? (Maybe German parishioners of that time were "simple" peasants. But William's parishioners would be educated, thinking, American fellow- citizens, who had a keen interest in whatever truths their minister thought he knew to tell them.) On the voyage home there was a great storm. William felt he might be about to meet God. No way could he meet God with the terrible sin in his heart of planning to live a life of lies and deception.
About the Author: Mary Jane Williams was a graduate student in German literature at Harvard University. She received her M.A. from Middlebury College's German School, studied at the Univ. of Mainz and and at the Sorbonne. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.