Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
(1803-1882) American poet and essayist. His spirit of independence early led him to leave the pulpit for the lecture platform where he earned high rank as the leading transcendentalist and the foremost figure in the famous Concord group. His profound vision, his ringing spirit of individualism and his love of democracy place him among the New World’s philosophic pantheon. His “The American Scholar,” “The Over-Soul,” ”Self-Reliance,” “Compensation” and the Divinity School Address are perhaps the most famous of his lectures and essays. He edited The Dial, the official organ of the transcendental movement. His several trips to Europe brought him into contact with Coleridge and Wordsworth, but particularly with Carlyle.
R. W. EmersonComplete Works, 12 vols. (Boston, 1903-4). — L.E.D.