In the late 1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson publicly called for a radical nationwide vocational reinvention, and an idealistic group of collegians--including Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Samuel Ward, and Ellery Channing--eagerly responded. Assuming the role of mentor, editor, and promoter, Emerson freely offered them his time, financial support, and anti-materialistic counsel, and profoundly shaped the careers of his young acolytes. David Dowling's history of the alternately fruitful and vexing relationships between Emerson and his protégés is a fanscinating true story of altrusim, ego, influence, pettiness, genius, and the bold attempt to reshape the literary market of the mid-nineteenth century.