The nineteenth century offers a rich variety in literature, much of it influenced by transcendentalist writers. The novels of Melville, including what critics have regarded as his greatest, Moby Dick, originally published in 1851, provide an example of transcendentalist influence.

In poetry, Emily Dickinson is an interesting figure for study. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1997) contains all of her poems, which were originally published by Paul Johnson in a three-volume set in 1955. While Dickinson's short, concise lines stand in sharp contrast to Whitman's, she was greatly influenced by transcendentalist thought, particularly in her focus on nature and desire.

In terms of British Romanticism, reading the poetry of William Wordsworth can inform any understanding of American Transcendentalism, since the movements are intertwined. His Poems in Two Volumes was originally published in 1807.

Some of the best-selling "sentimental" novels of the day, such...