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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
began his career as a Unitarian minister but went on, as an independent man
of letters, to become the preeminent lecturer, essayist and philosopher of
19th century A
merica.
Emerson was a key figure in the "New England Renaissance," as an author and
also through association with the Transcendental Club, the Dial and the many
writers—notably Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller—who
gathered around him at his home in Concord, Massachusetts. Late in life his
home was a kind of shrine students and aspiring writers visited, as on a
pilgrimage. He and other Transcendentalists did much to open Unitarians and
the liberally religious to science, Eastern religions and a naturalistic
mysticism.Waldo was born May 25, 1803, the fourth of eight children. His
family—descendants of a number of noteworthy New England ministers—prized
education, learning and culture. His father, William Emerson, distinguished
minister of First Church, Boston, had drawn his congregation with him into
Unitarianism. The family was intimate with the Boston intellectuals of the
era, among them William Ellery Channing, George Buckminster, Henry Ware, Sr.
and Edward Everett.His father died when Waldo was eight, leaving the family
without financial support. His mother Ruth sold her husband's library (which
became the Boston Athenaeum), took in boarders and worked as a maid. They
often had not enough to eat. Waldo and his brother Charles had only one
overcoat between them. Taunting schoolfellows asked, "Whose turn is it to
wear the great-coat today?"
Aunt Mary Moody Emerson, his father's
unmarried sister, was the dominant influence of Emerson's childhood and
youth. Without formal education, she was possessed of a richly fertile mind.
She read widely and knew well the thinkers of the day. A moderate "Channing
Unitarian," steeped in the piety of New England and the history of its
churches and theology, she taught Waldo many of the aphorisms he in turn
taught his own children: "Lift your aims." "Always do what you are afraid to
do." "Despise trifles." "Turn up your nose at glory, honor and money." And
"Oh, blessed, blessed poverty." She first introduced Emerson to Hindu
scriptures and Neoplatonism. She anticipated, especially in her openess to
natural religion, the Transcendentalist sensibility. Emerson's distinctive
views first began to emerge in his letters to "Tnamurya," an anagram of
"Aunt Mary," during the 1820s.
Poor as they were, their family
history and social position assured that the Emerson boys would be well
educated. Waldo entered Harvard at 14. He began 
then
to keep a journal, a practice he continued for the rest of his life, later
calling its volumes—all long since published—his "savings bank." He
considered various professions, most involving oratory or rhetoric in one
way or another. From Harvard he once wrote Aunt Mary, "In my daydreams I do
often hunger and thirst to be a painter." His early journals, poems, and
other writings were lavishly illustrated with his drawings. He also painted
with water colors. His early writings contain much poetry, but he knew he
could not earn a living as a poet. One aspiration never left him. He told
Prof. James B. Thayer in 1873 that there never was a time that he would not
have accepted a professorship of rhetoric at Harvard.After graduation from
the College in 1821, at the age of 18, Emerson taught school for his uncle,
the Rev. Samuel Ripley, in Waltham and later opened a finishing school for
girls, but he did not enjoy school teaching. His older brother William had
studied for the ministry, but abandoned it to study law. Aunt Mary stressed
that there always had been, and always must be, a Reverend Mr. Emerson in
Boston. Though he questioned his calling, Emerson closed his school after
four years to enter Harvard Divinity School.
In October, 1826, Emerson was licensed
to preach by the Middlesex Association of Ministers. He became dangerously
ill that fall, probably suffering early symptoms of tuberculosis from which
his brother William died. In late November he traveled south to Charleston,
South Carolina and St. Augustine, Florida, in hope that rest in a warmer
climate would help him recover. Having returned to New England the next
spring in much better health, he began to preach in Unitarian churches in
Massachusetts and New Hampshire.Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Most of his ancestors were clergymen as was his father. He was educated in
Boston and Harvard, like his father, and graduated in 1821. In 1825 he began
to study at the Harvard Divinity School and next year he was licensed to
preach by the Middlesex Association of Ministers. In 1829 Emerson married
Ellen Louisa Tucker, who died in 1831 from consumption. Emerson became sole
pastor at the Second Unitarian Church of Boston in 1830. Three years later
he had a crisis of faith, finding that he "was not interested" in the rite
of Communion. Emerson's controversial views caused his resignation. In 1835
Emerson married Lydia Jackson and settled with her at the east end of the
village of Concord, where he then spent the rest of his life.
Emerson's first book, Nature, a
collection of essays, appeared when he was 33. Emerson emphasized
individualism and rejected traditional authority. He also 
believed
that people should try to live a simple life in harmony with nature and with
others. His lectures 'The American Scholar' (1837) and 'Address at Divinity
College' (1838) challenged the Harvard intelligentsia and warned about a
lifeless Christian tradition. Harvard ostracized him for many years, but his
message attracted young disciples, who joined the informal Transcendental
Club (established in 1836). In 1840 Emerson helped Margaret Fuller to launch
The Dial (1840-44), an open forum for new ideas on the reformation of
society.of lectures annexed to a reprint of Nature (1849), and
Representative Men (1850). In the 1850s he started to gain success as a
lecturer. His English Traits, a summary of English character and history,
appeared in 1856.Other later works include Conduct Of Life (1860), Society
And Solitude (1870), a selection of poems called Parnassus (1874), and
Letters And Social Aims, (1876). As an essayist Emerson was a master of
style. He encouraged American scholars to break free of European influences
and create a new Americanculture.Emerson's heath started to fail after the
partial burning of his house in 1872. He made his last tour abroad in
1872-1873, and then withdrew more and more from public life. Emerson died on
April 27, 1882 in Concord. Miscellanies (1884), a collection of political
speeches and Lectures And Biographical Sketches (1884) were published
posthumously.
Emerson was one of the central
characters in the transcendental movement emerging in literary circles
around Concord, Massachusetts during the late 1830’s. He resigned from his
occupation as a Unitarian clergyman in 1832 to travel to Europe, where he
befriended Carlyle, Coleridge and Wordsworth among others. In the U.S. he
lectured in philosophy, while forming a transcendentalist group comprising
fellow writers and poets such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. In 1842 he took over the role as editor
of The Dial, which served as spokes vehicle for the movement.
In 1855, Emerson recieved a thin book
of poetry entitled "Leaves of Grass" by a poet he had never heard of before.
He loved this book of poetry which was unorthodox in both style and subject.
Emerson wrote an encouraging letter to this unknown poet, who of course was
Walt Whitman. Later they also met, and Whitman was very flattered by the
praise of Emerson.
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