Essays

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882), born in Boston, son of a Unitarian minister who died when Ralph was eight, leaving him and four other brothers (one mentally retarded) to the care of their mother and aunt. He was educated at Harvard, studied theology and became a pastor in Boston, but resigned his charge. He departed in 1832 for Europe, and in 1833 visited England, when he met Coleridge, Wordsworth and Carlyle, who became a lifelong friend and correspondent. On his return to America, Emerson embarked on a career as lecturer, evolving the new quasi-religious concept of Transcendentalism, which found written expression in his essay “Nature” (1836): “The world is the mind precipitated”. This form of mystic idealism and reverence for nature was immensely influential in American life and thought.