Ralph Waldo Emerson

In his essays and speeches, Ralph Waldo Emerson established a distinctly American philosophy centered on his belief that each individual possesses an inner spiritual truth that transcends, or exceeds, the knowledge that comes from rational thought and logic. His philosophy was the basis of Transcendentalism and inspired an entire generation of American writers and poets.

Early years

Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts . His father, a minister, died in 1811, leaving Emerson's mother with seven young children to raise on a limited income. In 1817, Emerson entered Harvard College on a scholarship and worked his way through college.

During his third year at Harvard, Emerson began keeping a journal. He continued writing his journals for over fifty years and later took inspiration from the topics raised there for his essays.

After graduating in 1821, Emerson became a teacher. In 1825, having saved enough money to put himself through Harvard Divinity School (a school that trains people to become religious leaders), he quit teaching. In 1827, he met the seventeen-year-old Ellen Louisa Tucker. They married in 1829. That same year, he became minister at Boston's Second Church.

A period of doubt

Emerson soon became dissatisfied with being a minister. He found it difficult to accept the church's insistence on miracles. He believed religion should be based on the spiritual inspiration within each believer, not blind acceptance of tradition. Emerson's beliefs were influenced by a wide range of readings, including the works of Greek philosopher Plato (c. 428 bce–c. 348 bce), the writings of eighteenth-century Swedish scientist and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1722), and the works of European Romantics such as English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), who stressed intuition over rational thought.

Only a year and a half after his marriage, Emerson's young bride died. In his grief, he came to believe that God is not an entity that exists outside of humans, but rather that God lives within each individual human soul. Emerson came to believe that each person needed to break free from the everyday world in order to see the godliness in his or her inner self.

The making of a writer

Emerson left his position in the Boston church in 1832 and set off on a ten-month journey to Europe. In England, he met Coleridge, poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850), and other major thinkers and writers of the Romantic movement, which placed great value on the individual imagination and viewed nature as inspirational. In Paris, Emerson came to a profound understanding about the interconnectedness between humankind and other forms of nature. This harmonious relationship between all parts of nature formed another cornerstone of Emerson's belief system.

Returning to the United States filled with new ideas and inspiration, in 1833 Emerson joined the lyceum movement. This community-based program, which had arisen in New England in the 1820s, sponsored lectures and performances by visiting scholars and artists. Topics for Emerson's lectures soon ranged from English literature to the philosophy of history. Lecturing was Emerson's main source of income for the rest of his life.

Transcendental movement

In 1834, Emerson moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where he remarried and began family life. He formed a new group of friends in Concord, including feminist writer Margaret Fuller (1810–1850), writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), and writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864). The Concord group became the basis of a distinct national literature known as the American Renaissance.

Stimulated by these friendships, Emerson helped to form the Transcendental Club in 1836. The Transcendentalist philosophy that resulted from this group was not one unified program, but rather a patchwork of beliefs and theories. Transcendentalists saw a fundamental unity in all creation, viewed humanity as essentially good, and trusted insight over logic to provide the deepest understanding of life. Many transcendentalists were activists in social reform, including the abolition movement (putting an end to slavery ).

Essays, journals, and speeches

Between 1836 and 1844, Emerson produced some of his most lasting and influential work. Nature (1836) was a declaration of his spiritual philosophy. It stressed his concept of inner understanding and his views on the oneness of all nature. The book attracted a good deal of critical attention and sold well. The American Scholar (1837) laid out the need for a distinctly American literature, independent of Europe and England.

Together with Margaret Fuller, Emerson helped found the transcendentalist journal the Dial in 1840, which played an important part in developing a unique American voice in literature. Meanwhile, Emerson's fame as a public speaker grew each year. His Essays appeared in 1841. Each of the twelve essays on religious, moral, and intellectual topics had grown out of his lyceum lectures. One of these was his best-known essay, “Self-Reliance,” in which he attacked the idea of conforming to other people's expectations.

In 1842, Emerson's first son and favorite child, Waldo, died at the age of five from scarlet fever. His grief began to change the underlying structures of his thoughts. With Essays: Second Series (1844), he became less optimistic about the possibilities of human spiritual fulfillment.

Later years

Emerson published his first book of verse in 1847. A second volume followed twenty years later. Although most critics agree that Emerson was not as strong a poet as he was an essayist, his experiments in poetry influenced later American poets.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861–65), Emerson became an ardent Union supporter. But by that time, his memory had begun to fail, and over the next decade his health deteriorated. His last years were peaceful but not productive. In 1882, he became ill with pneumonia and died.

Since his death, Emerson's reputation has gone through several phases of acclaim and criticism. Whatever the critics’ judgment, he had a profound influence on the world of letters in the United States. He was instrumental in creating a national literature with its own blend of Yankee common sense and optimism about the human potential for growth and self-realization.