Emerson
EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was a leader of Transcendentalism which was a literary and philosophical movement that began in the United States in 1836. Transcendentalists did not agree with the strict ritualism of established religious institutions. They supported individualism and self- examination. They believed that they could understand themselves better if they study nature and their surroundings. Transcendentalists also believed in an "Over-Soul" where all forms of being are united spiritually. Emerson's lectures and writing were based on this philosophy. (Hirsh)
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 25, 1803. His father, Reverend William Emerson, was a Unitarian minister at the famous First Church in Boston. His mother, Ruth Haskins Emerson was the daughter of a cooper and distiller. He was the fourth of six children in his family. Three of his brothers were very intelligent. Of the other two, one was mentally retarded and lived most of his life in institutions. The other was insane for a time.
Emerson was a serious young boy who was liked by elders more than those of his own age. He never went out to play with the boys because he liked doing things that had to do with literature which was not really interesting to them. His early life was not a happy one. He lived in poverty, sickness, and frustration. On April 26, 1807, his brother John Clarke died. His father then died on May 12, 1811 and left his mother to take care of the children alone. One of his brothers died of a mental illness in 1834. Another one died of tuberculosis in 1836. Emerson was also not a very healthy person. He had lung disease and periods of temporary blindness until he was thirty years old. (Clendenning)
He attended the Boston Latin School from 1812 to 1817. Emerson then started to study at Harvard College in August 1817. He worked his way through college as a messenger and writer because of the financial strain on his family after his father's death. He developed his great interests in literature and philosophy during this time. Emerson studied Latin, Greek, and French, but didn't pay much attention to mathematics. He liked living in solitude and independence and said that the best thing about college was having a room to himself. Emerson graduated in the thirtieth position in a class of fifty-nine in 1821.
Afterwards, he taught in his older brother's private school for three years so that he could help his family to pay their debts off. He did not like it and was not satisfied. When he turned twenty-one, he decided to join the ministry. Emerson enrolled in the Harvard Divinity School in 1825 to study theology. He then married Ellen Louisa Tucker of Concord, New Hampshire on September 10, 1829. Emerson was licensed to preach on October 1826. He became a Unitarian pastor at the Old Second Church of Boston. (Hale 308)
Emerson was not a good pastor and was dedicated into carry out his duties well. Many of his sermons were repeated over and over again. His wife died of tuberculosis after a short but happy marriage on February 8, 1831. He resigned his position as a pastor on October 28, 1832 after he told his parishioners about his unwillingness and dissatisfaction with the profession.
On December 5, 1832, Emerson traveled to Italy, France, England, and Scotland. In 1833, he met several British writers whose work and ideas meant the most to him and strongly influenced his philosophy—Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Wordsworth. The conservatism of Coleridge and Wordsworth disappointed Emerson. This helped him to build his own system of criticism and it paved the way of his thoughts to follow for many years to come. Carlyle ended up being his lifelong friend and Emerson learned much from him. Along with meeting and learning from other writers, he started to have a greater interest in science and saw the connections with spirituality and the unity of all. He also comes up with many of his "Self- reliance" and "Nature" ideas. Emerson returned to the United States on October 9, 1833 with an enthusiasm of his new belief in the philosophy of Transcendentalism. (Gay 253)
He settled in Concord, Massachusetts in a house of his ancestors with his step grandfather, Ezra Ripley. It was his home until 1872, when it was burned down. It was replaced by his friends with money that they had raised. In 1835, he married Lydia Jackson of Plymouth. He was now living a secure financial life since he received money from his first wife's legacy. Emerson had four children with Lydia—two sons, Waldo and Edward, and two daughters, Ellen and Edith. Waldo, the oldest and best-loved, sadly died on January 27, 1842. (Richardson)
Emerson began a career as a writer and lecturer. He had a lecture tour annually and each year he would go further west. These lectures came from a journal he had kept since 1820 and were the source of most of his essays. He gave his first lecture, "The Uses of Natural History," on November 5, 1833 at the Masonic Temple is Boston. One of his well-known lectures is, "The American Scholar," which was given to Harvard seniors in 1837. Here, he told the students to learn from life, know the past through books, and express themselves through actions. On July 15, 1838, Emerson gives another address at Harvard—"The Divinity School Address." In it, he rejected "historical Christianity" for a "religion founded in nature."
Emerson's best written work was done between 1836 and 1860. His first book, "Nature," was published on September 9, 1836. It was about the main principles of Transcendentalism and it became the unofficial statement of the Transcendentalists' beliefs. A little after this, a discussion group with Emerson as its leader was formed. It became known as the "Transcendental Club." He edited a magazine about writing and philosophy that they published which was called "The Dial." The first series of "Essays" was published on March 20, 1841. This book included "Self-Reliance" and "The Over-Soul." A second series of "Essays" came out on October 19, 1844. It sold well. Emerson also wrote poems and they are considered classics of American literature. "Poems" and "May-Day" were two volumes of poetry that was published in his lifetime. "The Rhodora" and "The Snowstorm," poems about nature, were included in these volumes. (Clendenning)
He had not written or thought of anything new after he turned sixty. Emerson's mental capabilities were gradually failing. Soon he forgot what he had written in his work and he could not remember the names of his old friends. Emerson died of pneumonia in Concord on April 27, 1882. He was seventy- eight years old. Emerson is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery next to Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne, two writers who he had influenced. (Gay 254) After his death, his Edward Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes edited and published his journals in ten volumes in 1909. (Richardson)