Ralph Waldo Emerson's Impact On America

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard and taught for a brief time. After that, Emerson was appointed a preacher position at the Old Second Church in his native city. The following year, Ralph sailed to Europe and met a Scottish writer named Thomas Carlyle. They became very close friends and Thomas had a great effect on Emerson’s poetry and philosophy. In 1821, he took over as director of his brother’s school for girls. In 1823, he wrote the poem "Good-Bye.” In 1832, he became a Transcendentalist, leading to the later essays "Self-Reliance" and "The American Scholar." Emerson continued to write and lecture into the late 1870s. Ralph died on April 27, 1882, in Massachusetts at the age of

All of these different measures had a diverse effect on his writing. The Louisiana Purchase, War of 1812, Missouri Compromise, Trail of Tears, Mexican-American War, The Civil War, and many other occurrences had a great effect on Emerson and his writing. A majority of these events had a huge effect on America, the people, and the economy at the time (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Cliffsnotes.com). According to Poet.org, upon his return to New England, Emerson became known for challenging traditional thought. In 1835, he married his second wife, Lydia Jackson, and settled in Concord, Massachusetts. Known in the local literary circle as “The Sage of Concord," Emerson became the chief spokesman for Transcendentalism, the American philosophic and literary movement. Centered in New England during the 19th century, it was a reaction against scientific rationalism (“Ralph Waldo Emerson: 1803-1882, Boston,

Emerson presented the first hint of the philosophy that would become “Self-Reliance” as part of a sermon in September 1830 a month after his first marriage (Essays: first series). His wife Ellen was sick with tuberculosis. From 1836 into 1837, Emerson presented a series of lectures on the philosophy of history at Boston's Masonic Temple. These lectures were never published separately, but many of his thoughts in these were later used in "Self-Reliance" and several other essays. Later lectures by Emerson led to public disapproval of his radical views, the firm defense of individualism in "Self-Reliance" being a possible reaction to that censure. "Self-Reliance" was first published in 1841. "Self-Reliance" is one of Emerson’s most famous essays. Emerson wrote on “individualism, personal responsibility, and nonconformity.” The Transcendentalist movement flourished in New England and proposed a revolutionarily new philosophy of life. Some of these ideas pertained closely to the values of America at the time. These values included nature, individualism, and reform, and can be noted in Emerson's essay (“Self-Reliance”). This information proves that Emerson’s writing was strongly influenced by his memorable