Ralph waldo emerson biography pdf

1. Chronology of Emerson’s Life

1803

Born in Boston to William and Ruth Haskins Emerson.

1811

Father dies, probably of tuberculosis.

1812

Enters Boston Public Latin School

1817

Begins study at Harvard College: Greek, Latin, History, Rhetoric.

1820

Starts first journal, entitled “The Wide World.”

1821

Graduates from Harvard and begins teaching at his brother William’s school for young ladies in Boston.

1825

Enters Harvard Divinity School.

1829

Marries Ellen Tucker and is ordained minister at Boston’s Second Church.

1831

Ellen Tucker Emerson dies, at age 19.

1832

Resigns position as minister and sails for Europe.

1833

Meets Wordsworth, Coleridge, J. S. Mill, and Thomas Carlyle. Returns to Boston in November, where he begins a career as a lecturer.

1834

Receives first half of a substantial inheritance from Ellen’s estate (second half comes in 1837).

1835

Marries Lidian Jackson.

1836

Publishes first book, Nature.

1838

Delivers the “Divinity School Address.” Protests relocation of the

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

American poet, essayist, and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston. After studying at Harvard and teaching for a brief time, Emerson entered the ministry. He was appointed to the Old Second Church in his native city, but soon became an unwilling preacher. Unable in conscience to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Soon after the death of his nineteen-year-old wife of tuberculosis, Emerson resigned his pastorate in 1831.

The following year, Emerson sailed for Europe, visiting Thomas Carlyle and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Carlyle, the Scottish-born English writer, was famous for his explosive attacks on hypocrisy and materialism, his distrust of democracy, and his highly romantic belief in the power of the individual. Emerson’s friendship with Carlyle was both lasting and significant; the insights of the British thinker helped Emerson formulate his own philosophy.

On his return to New England, Emerson became known for challenging traditional thought. In 1835, he married his second wife, Lydia Jackson, and settled in Concord, M

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Bates College

Ralph Waldo Emerson (American, 1803-1882)

Emerson is best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement in the US during the 1820s and 1830s. As described in Emerson’s essay “Nature,” Transcendentalism focused on the belief that the divine was suffused throughout the natural world and that the study of nature could therefore reveal the nature of God. In espousing these beliefs, Emerson and his contemporaries broke from the more accepted notion of God as separate from the natural world. In addition to being a philosopher and essayist, Emerson was also an accomplished poet whose style was deeply influential on poets, especially Walt Whitman. Despite the controversial nature of some of his views, especially when it came to his staunch abolitionism and religious philosophy, Emerson was effectively the leader of intellectualism in the US during his lifetime and is largely considered the most influential American author of the nineteenth century.