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Emerson also experienced career difficulties. He was unhappy in his first position as a schoolteacher, claiming that he was “hopeless” in the classroom. Leaving teaching to study theology, he was ordained in 1829, following nine generations of his ancestors into the ministry. As a Unitarian pastor, Emerson was part of a liberal New England religious movement which stressed the inherent goodness of humanity, the importance of reason and conscience over ritual, and the equality of all people before God. Eventually Emerson’s role as a minister became a source of anxiety for him as he began to question church doctrine and to feel increasingly skeptical of revealed religion. In 1832 he resigned from the church and took a tour of Europe. There, he read widely and met with important intellectual and literary figures such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Dickens, and Carlyle. Upon his return to the United States in 1834, Emerson used the legacy bequeathed to him by his deceased wife to embark on a new career as a writer and public lecturer. He settled in the quiet town of Concord, Massachusetts, where he lived with his second wife and received visits from a wide circle of friends and admirers.
Emerson’s first book, Nature (1836), initially reached a relatively small audience, but the philosophy it articulated of the unity of souls, nature, and divinity functioned as a kind of manifesto for the group of intellectuals who came to be known as the Transcendental Club. Although the club was small and existed for only four years, it had an enormous impact on the development of American letters. It influenced such writers as Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Bronson Alcott, and it articulated ideas that inspired luminaries like Walt Whitman. As the leading figure in the Transcendentalist group, Emerson began to attract attention from a wider audience, especially after the publication of his Essays (1841) and Essays: Second Series (1844). “The American Scholar” and “The Divinity School Address,” both lectures which were delivered at Harvard and subsequently published as pamphlets, brought him fame and some notoriety–“The Divinity School Address,” in particular, was denounced for its outspoken criticisms of traditional religious education, which Emerson found dogmatic. Despite the controversies provoked by some of his work, Emerson’s impassioned calls for Americans to reject their deference to old, European traditions and to embrace experimentation were received with enthusiasm by a generation of writers, artists, and thinkers who strove to embody his ideals of American art.
Emerson continued writing to the end of his life, using his fame and influence to promote his own work as well as to support other writers. His endorsement of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (though he intended that endorsement to be private), his support for Thoreau’s Walden project (Emerson allowed Thoreau to live on his land near Walden pond), and his loan of his home at the Old Manse to Hawthorne for three years were only the most famous of his many efforts to encourage fellow authors. Despite his activism on behalf of writers, Emerson was reluctant to become involved in any of the various social causes and reforms that enlisted his support. He eventually spoke and wrote on behalf of abolitionism, but his efforts came far too late to have much impact. He died in Concord, leaving a legacy of innovative thought and work that has had a lasting influence on the character of American letters.
[1029] Wilfred A. French, The Old Manse (n.d.), from F. B. Sanborn, Emerson and His Friends in Concord (1890),
courtesy of Cornell University Library, Making of America Digital Collection.
Ralph Waldo Emerson loaned his home at the Old Manse to Nathaniel Hawthorne for three years. This was one of his many efforts to encourage fellow authors.
[1030, 1112] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letter, Ralph Waldo Emerson to Walt Whitman (1855),
courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-MSS-18630-5].
When this letter was written, Emerson was a well-known lecturer, and Whitman a young, aspiring poet. This is an example of Emerson’s eagerness to support and encourage fellow writers.
[3662] Allen & Rowell Studio, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Reading (n.d.),
courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Emerson was a prominent writer who articulated American ideals and celebrated the potential of the American individual. He supported the endeavors of such contemporaries as Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Whitman.
[3694] Thomas Cole, The Falls of the Kaaterskill (1826),
courtesy of the Warner Collection of the Gulf States Paper Corporation.
Cole was one of the first American landscape artists and a founder of the Hudson River School of painting. Romantic depictions of wilderness became popular as the United States continued its westward expansion.
[9037] Detroit Publishing Company, Emerson House, Concord, Mass. (1905),
courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-D4-11360 DLC].
Photo of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house in Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson moved here at the age of twenty-five and lived here for the rest of his life.
[9041 – not found] Christopher Cranch, Transparent Eyeball (n.d.),
courtesy of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Christopher Pearse Cranch was a contributor to such Transcendentalist publications as the Dial and the Harbinger, and he enjoyed drawing caricatures, such as this one, which satirizes Emerson’s essay Nature.
[9049] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Divinity School Address (1838),
courtesy of rwe.org, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emerson delivered this lecture to the senior class of the Divinity College of Cambridge. Emerson was himself a Unitarian minister for a period.
[9050] Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar (1837),
courtesy of rwe.org, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emerson addressed “The American Scholar” to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge and stressed the importance of lived experience, especially for a scholar.
[9051] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Introduction and Chapter 1 (1836),
courtesy of Project Gutenberg.
The writing of Nature was interrupted by the death of Emerson’s brother. Emerson’s grief comes through in the essay with such thoughts as “nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today.”