Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

US writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. His belief in Transcendentalism led him to doubt the existence of evil, a stance that made him controversial among contemporary writers such as Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

US philosopher, poet, and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the central figures of New England Transcendentalism. He repudiated both materialism and conventional religion in his lyrical essay ‘Nature’ (1836), in which he advocated that people should live a simple life in harmony with nature.

US philosopher, essayist, and poet. He settled in Concord, Massachusetts, which he made a centre of transcendentalism, and wrote Nature (1836), which states the movement's main principles emphasizing the value of self-reliance and the godlike nature of human souls. His two volumes of Essays (1841, 1844) made his reputation: ‘Self-Reliance’ and ‘Compensation’ in the earlier volume are among the best known.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard, Emerson became a Unitarian minister 1829. In 1832 he resigned and travelled to Europe, meeting the British writers Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Coleridge, and William Wordsworth. On his return to Massachusetts in 1833 he settled in Concord. He worked alongside Margaret Fuller, William Channing, and Henry Thoreau to develop transcendentalism, particularly its theological aspects, as a protest against dogmatic rationalism in religion. In 1840 he helped to launch the literary magazine The Dial, which he also edited for a time. He made a second visit to England 1847 and incorporated his impressions in English Traits 1856. His poetry, much of which was published in The Dial, includes ‘The Rhodora’, ‘Threnody’, and ‘Brahma’. His later works include Representative Men 1850 and The Conduct of Life 1870.