RalphWaldo EmmersonRalph Waldo Emerson “. . . was truly one of our great geniuses” even though hemay have a short biography (Hodgins 212). But as Emerson once said himself,”Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.
” Emerson was also a majorleader of “the philosophical movement of Transcendentalism”. (Encarta 1)Transcendentalism was belief in a higher reality than that found everyday lifethat a human can achieve. Biographical Information Emerson was born on May 25,1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father died when he was young and his motherwas left with him and his four other siblings.
At the age of 18 he graduatedfrom Harvard University and was a teacher for three years in Boston. Then in1825 he entered Harvard Divinity School and preached for three years. At the ageof 29 he resigned for ministry, partly because of the death of his wife afteronly 17 months of marriage. In 1835 he married Lydia Jackson and started tolecture. Then in 1836, he helped to start the Transcendental Club. TheTranscendental Club was formed for authors that were part of this historicalmovement.
Emerson was a big part of this and practically initiated the entireclub. As we know he was already a major part of the movement and know gothimself involved more. Many people and ways of life throughout his careerincluding Neoplatonism, the Hindu religion, Plato and even his wife influencedEmerson. He also inspired many Transcendentalists like Thoreau.
Emerson didn’twin any major awards, but he did win the love and appreciation of his readers. Literary Information Emerson wrote many genres of writing including poetry andsermons, but his best writing is found in his essays. Even though he is notedfor his essays, he was also a strong force in poetry. Emerson was known forpresenting ideas in an expressive style.
He wrote about numerous issuesincluding nature, society, conspiracy and freedom. After returning to Americaafter a visit to England, he wrote for the abolitionist cause, which waseliminating slavery. Emerson used these ideas in his 1837 lecture “TheAmerican Scholar,” which he presented before the Phi Beta Kappa Society ofHarvard. In it he talked about Americans becoming more intelligentlyindependent. In a second address, commonly referred to as the “Address atDivinity College,” given in 1838 to the graduating class of Cambridge DivinityCollege, brought about a problem because it attacked religion and pushedindependence.
Some of Emerson’s famous titles are “Essays”, which waspublished in 1844, Poems, which was published in 1847, “Nature: Addresses andLectures”, 1849, and “Representative Men”, 1850. In 1860, he published”Conduct of Life”, which was the first of his works to receive immediatepopularity. In these works you were able to see the influence Plato andNeoplatonism had of him. “Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher. He developedthe notion of a higher reality that exists beyond the powers of humancomprehension. Plato explained that the idea of absolute goodness transcendshuman description.
Neoplantonism was a collective designation for thephilosophical and religious doctrines of a heterogeneous school of speculativethinkers who sought to develop and synthesize the metaphysical ideas of Plato”(Encarta). Ralph Waldo Emerson found motivation to write in anything he did,whether it was visiting England, the Transcendental Movement or if it wasabolishing slavery. He didn’t receive much fame during his lifetime, but afterhe passed away in1882, he was remembered for all of his writing, not just onegood essay. “Emerson was the most important figure during the RomanticPeriod” (Myerson 3). He left his mark on writing, especially the RomanticPeriod.
Bibliography”Emerson, Ralph Waldo. ” Microsoft Encarta. CD-ROM. 1998 ed. “Emerson,Ralph Waldo. ” Lkd.
Columbia University Homepage, at “ILT Web. ” *http://www. ilt. columbia.
edu/acedemic/digitexts/emerson/bio_emerson. html* Hodgins, Francis. ed. Adventures in American Literature. Orlando: Harcourt,1989.
Myerson, Joel. “Ralph Waldo Emerson. ” Grolier Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1993 ed.
