This chapter offers various readings of Emerson over the last two centuries, critics and allies alike, and how his work has been received in scholarly circles. From his earliest publications, Emerson’s writings inspired as well as perplexed his contemporaries, prompting Walt Whitman to shift the tone of his initial criticism from jubilant praise to questionable utility as to how his work should be received. Pioneer in the nascent study of education Matthew Arnold questioned whether Emerson deserved to be called a philosopher at all. It wasn’t until the middle of the twentieth century that Emerson’s poems and essays began to experience a revaluation of his legacy in American literature and he became established canon in American literature classrooms throughout the United States. These multiple, oftentimes conflicting critiques of Emerson present a vision of Emerson’s ideas about reading and outline the major themes in his work that contribute to his theories of reading.