How to Appreciate Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American author, poet and essayist. He was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Reverend William Emerson, was a Unitarian minister, as were several men from the previous generations in his family. He would grow up to spearhead a revolutionary way of thinking.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century in the United States.
2. By the age of 14, Emerson was attending Harvard, where he was given the appointment of Freshman's President. He graduated at the age of 18.
3. Ralph Waldo Emerson encouraged individuality and the undermining of authority when these were wildly unpopular views. He also stressed a unity with nature, which was more of an Eastern way of thinking at the time.
4. Several of Emerson's speeches including "The American Scholar" and "Address at Divinity School" directly challenged Harvard and other institutions to which he and his family were closely linked.
5. Emerson was one of the founders of the Transcendental Club, which published a journal called "The Dial."
6. Today, Ralph Waldo Emerson is considered one of America's most influential authors, philosophers and thinkers.

Tips & Warnings

• Emerson's father referred to his son as "a rather dull scholar" when he was not yet 8 years old.
• For some years after graduating from Harvard, Emerson made his living as a schoolteacher. At one point he assisted his mother in teaching young women in her house.
• Emerson wrote about his philosophy of transcendentalism for the first time his essay, "Nature," which was published in 1936.
• Emerson followed in the family line for a while, becoming a pastor at the Second Unitarian Church of Boston, but eventually quit after a crisis of faith.