The Extraordinary Manifesto of Independent Living Is Newly Abridged and Introduced in this Powerful Condensation Self-Reliance is a life-changing experience. Its message of nonconformity, self-expression, and personal independence can awaken you to a new and better way of living. Now, PEN Award-winning historian and New Thought scholar Mitch Horowitz has deftly and faithfully retained the most powerful ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson's original classic, and reintroduced the work in this one-of-a-kind condensation. Readable within the space of an average commute or lunch hour, the experience of Self-Reliance may represent a true turning point in your life. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.  Mitch Horowitz, who abridged and introduced this volume, is the PEN Award-winning author of books including Occult America and The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality.  The Washington Post says Mitch "treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today's raised-voice discussions." Follow him @MitchHorowitz.