Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of fourteen Emerson was admitted to Harvard College and after graduating taught at his brother’s school for girls for a couple of years. Emerson entered the ministry in 1829 but shortly after resigned in 1832 after loosing faith in the Unitarian religion. Emerson drew influence from the Renaissance scholar, Michel de Montaigne’s essays which he read at an early age. After reading Montaigne’s essays Emerson lost his belief in a personal God and instead adopted the new ideas of God and one’s soul. Three years after resigning he, as well as other fellow transcendentalists, founded the Transcendental Club which came to serve as a center for the transcendental movement.

Transcendentalism got its start “as a reform movement in the Unitarian church, extending the views of William Ellery Channing on an indwelling God and the significance of intuitive thought” (Campbell). The movement came about in the nineteenth century in New England. Transcendentalists emphasize the basis of their religion and philosophy on principles relating to the soul. “For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains.” (Campbell) The basis of their philosophy protested culture and society at that point in time.

The influence of Emerson and the transcendentalist movement has impacted many aspects of culture. Charles Frazier’s novel “Cold Mountain,” which was adapted into a film starring Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, reveals such impact:

“In Charles Frazier's novel, Ada is the daughter of an unorthodox Christian preacher called Monroe, and they live on an unproductive farm near Cold Mountain where Monroe also exercises his ministry in a local church. The philosophy of Emerson is important to Monroe, and to Ada and Inman. Of particular importance is Emerson's essay, Self-Reliance (ABC).”

The movement expanded society’s knowledge on the concept of learning by explaining that learning was in fact, a process and once a process of learning was mastered, the brain could continue to use that process to learn further means of information. Transcendentalism also influenced society’s view of the human mind. Emerson has also influenced the likes of Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller. Emerson was foremost a poet but had also mastered the art of prose. His essays, lectures, and journals are just as well known as his poetry and even more so influential.

During the time of the movement abolitionism was becoming more, and more of an issue. Emerson supported abolitionism and spoke freely of his support. The time also represented a strong cultural emphasis on religion; so when transcendentalists formulated new, controversial ideas on religion it enlightened masses to re-evaluate their culture as they knew it. America was a new country and new ideas were presenting themselves everywhere in culture.

Emerson published his first essay in September of 1836 titled Nature. The website, poets.org, describes Nature: “Emerson’s first book, Nature (1836), is perhaps the best expression of his Transcendentalism, the belief that everything in our world—even a drop of dew—is a microcosm of the universe.” The following excerpt from Emerson’s Nature demonstrates this statement:

“The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.”

In the passage Emerson touches on many transcendentalist ideals. He describes aspects of nature with the utmost respect and relates it back to human beings. He also touches on the ideology of how transcendentalists viewed the thought process and the belief that thinking and knowledge was inward based.

Another significant work is Emerson’s Self-Reliance. In the following excerpt Emerson asserts trusting one’s inner self:

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for always the inmost becomes the outmost — and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgement. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this.”

In the poem Emerson stresses the value of individuality and self-reliance. He instructs one to trust their instincts and to decide for themselves on matters.

Emerson continues to influence many and his literary legacy lives on.


Campbell, Donna M. "American Transcendentalism." Literary Movements. 15

June 2005. 2 May 2007. <http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/amtrans.htm>.

"Tumult and Peace on Cold Mountain." ABC. 2 May 2007

<http://www.abc.net.au/religion/stories/s1037811.htm>.

"Ralph Waldo Emerson." Poets.Org. 3 May 2007

<http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/201>.

"Emerson's Self Reliance." 3 May 2007

<http://www.youmeworks.com/selfreliance.html>.

Emerson, Ralph W. "Nature." Nature. 3 May 2007

<http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/emerson/natureemersona.html#Chapter%20I>.