EMERSON, RALPH WALDO

Emerson, Ralph Waldo: translation

(1803–1882)

The son of a Unitarian clergyman, Emerson was born in Boston, and educated at Harvard. Although he studied philosophy extensively, he was not a critical or systematic thinker, but rather a channel for many religious, literary, and philosophical currents of the early 19th century. Meetings with Coleridge and Wordsworth in 1833, and a continuing friendship with Carlyle, enthused Emerson with the romantic doctrine of the primacy of personality, and reverence for the genius and hero. To this were added elements of absolute idealism, whereby the final flowering of spirit would reveal the unity of mind and nature, but Emerson also showed a pragmatist streak, emphasizing the practical effects of ideas and principles. This heady mixture, allied with his sage's contempt for contemporary civilization, gave Emerson a huge following, addressed in a vast number of essays and lectures and through his journal The Dial, the organ of New England transcendentalism.