Biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson an American Essayist

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803-April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher. Emerson is known as one of the leaders of the transcendentalist movement, which reached its peak in the mid-1800s in New England. Emphasizing individual dignity, equality, hard work and respect for nature, Emerson's work remains influential and relevant to this day.

Early life:

The beginning of his life was marked by poverty, frustration and illness. Emerson father, William Emerson, was a Unitarian pastor and died when Emerson was eight years old. It was the first encounter with early death. All three brothers died early, his first wife at 20 and his first m at the age of five, a stroke of fate that Emerson never really got over, even though he had two more children. After the father's death, the mother had to look after the children with the help of Emerson's aunt Mary Moody Emerson, an intellectual, eccentric and death-obsessed Puritan, and so the aunt became one of the strongest motivators for the young Emerson.

Education:

At the age of nine, Emerson joined the Boston Latin School in 1812; from October 1817, at the age of 14, Emerson attended Harvard College and graduated there in 1825. At the time, Emerson was not known as an outstanding student, but rather ranked fairly in the middle of his class.

In 1826, Emerson was licensed to serve as a Unitarian pastor. Three years later he was called to the Unitarian Second Church of Boston as Henry Ware's assistant. In 1826, Emerson was licensed to serve as a Unitarian pastor. Three years later he was called to the Unitarian Second Church of Boston as Henry Ware's assistant.

Married life:

On September 30, 1829, he married Ellen Louisa Tucker, who died on February 8, 1831 at the age of 19. After the death of his wife, he went on a trip to Europe, on which he made the acquaintance of Thomas Carlyle, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge between 1832 and 1833. On this trip, Emerson also has to know German idealism and Indian philosophies, which later left traces in his work.

On his return, he married Lydia Jackson in 1835 and moved with her to Concord, Massachusetts. They had four children together, the first son of whom, Waldo Emerson, died at the age of five.

In 1845, Emerson began a series of lectures on "The Use of Great Men", which in 1850 resulted in the publication "Representative Men". That year Emerson gave about 180 lectures; In the course of his 40-year career, there should be around 1,500 public readings. He traveled to California and Canada. He still spent most of his time in Massachusetts.

Trip to England:

On his trip to England in 1847, Emerson encountered the emerging industrialization and the drifting apart between the upper and lower classes.  There he met the British thinkers William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Carlyle, which led him to start his own idealistic philosophy. When he returned nine months later, he had developed a new understanding of English culture, which he passed on in his readings "Natural History of Intellect" and in his 1856 book "English Traits". He began his career as a writer and lecturer. He created a group that met at the Transcendental Club, which gave rise to the movement's name, transcendentalism. The sources of his thought could be identified in many intellectual movements such as Latinism, Neoplatonism, Puritanism, Renaissance poetry, mysticism, idealism, skepticism and romanticism. It brought together elements of the past and gave them a literary form, exerting an important influence on the works of several North American authors, such as Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry James and Robert Frost. His most famous books were Nature (1836), the first of them and very well received above all by the youth of his time, Essays (1841/1844), and Poems (1846).

In 1851, Emerson began a series of lectures published in 1860 as "The Conduct of Life". Emerson was energetic at the time, in his prime, and traveled regularly to lectures. However, he felt a growing awareness of his limits and the energy that was leaving him.

He had become famous, a central figure in the American literary landscape, a figure of light who spread both adult education and satire. Emerson became an unfathomable inspiration to many writers, particularly Henry Thoreau and Walt Whitman. He made anti-slavery speeches regularly, but never as ardently as Theodore Parker. In 1857, Emerson wrote an essay entitled "Memory". It is probably ironic that in later years his own memory faded.

Later life:

As early as 1867, Emerson had increasing health problems and was writing significantly less for his magazines. As a result, Emerson withdrew more and more from the public. At the turn of the year 1871/72, Emerson began to have memory problems, especially after his beloved house burned down in 1872. By the end of the decade, Emerson sometimes even forgot his own name, and when asked how he was feeling, he would reply, "All right; I've lost my mental faculties, but I'm okay". A sad realization for a man whose work was based on his spiritual strength.

Death:

Ralph Waldo Emerson died on April 27, 1882 in Concord, Massachusetts. His work and philosophy made him one of the most influential American authors of the 19th century and continue to work today. American transcendentalists consider Ralph Waldo Emerson to be one of their most important authors to this day.