[div]

I would suggest just getting emacs 24. If you are on OSX you can build the emacs head using homebrew. There's some cool stuff in 24 like the emacs package manager (package.el) etc.

Once you have emacs 24 ready to go, it's a good idea to take a look at the emacs starter kit: https://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit

There's also a pretty good peepcode screencast on emacs, its a bit old, but gives a good overview of a lot of the basics.

Once you feel like delving deeper, your best bet is to snoop around on emacswiki.org

[elgenie]

If you're on OSX, http://emacsformacosx.com/builds is easier to deal with than homebrew.

[veyron]

I'd recommend Aquamacs (which is integrated pretty well with OSX): http://aquamacs.org/

[nonrecursive]

This is fantastic, thank you