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...
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