In case you’re not completely bored with celebrations of Ralph Waldo’s 200th birthday (last week, in case you missed it), here’s George Scialabba’s super-succinct overview of Emerson’s life and significance. It’s also a review of Harvard English professor Lawrence Buell’s new book Emerson, which Scialabba finds “far too knowing, judicious, and disfigured by literary-critical jargon.” Alas!