The Poetry Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Known primarily as the leader of the philosophical movement transcendentalism, which stresses the ties of humans to nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and essayist, was born in Boston in 1803. From a long line of religious leaders, Emerson became the minister of the Second Church (Unitarian) in 1829. He left the church in 1832 because of profound differences in interpretation and doubts about church doctrine. He visited England and met with British writers and philosophers. It was during this first excursion abroad that Emerson formulated his ideas for Self-Reliance. He returned to the United States in 1833 and settled in Concord, Massachusetts. He began lecturing in Boston. His first book, Nature (1836), published anonymously, detailed his belief and has come to be regarded as his most significant original work on the essence of his philosophy of transcendentalism. The first volume of Essays (1841) contained some of Emerson's most popular works, including the renowned Self-Reliance. Emerson befriended and influenced a number of American authors including Henry David Thoreau. It was Emerson's practice of keeping a journal that inspired Thoreau to do the same and set the stage for Thoreau's experiences at Walden Pond. Emerson married twice (his first wife Ellen died in 1831 of tuberculosis) and had four children (two boys and two girls) with his second wife, Lydia. His first born, Waldo, died at age six. Emerson died in Concord on April 27, 1882 at the age of 78 due to pneumonia and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. About the Editors Ralph H. Orth, Professor of English at the University of Vermont, edited three volumes of The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Harvard University Press, 1960-1982) and is the general editor for a forthcoming edition of Emerson's topical notebooks, to be published by the University of Missouri Press.Albert J. von Frank, Associate Professor at Washington State University, is the author of The Sacred Games: Provincialism and Frontier Consciousness in American Literature, 1630-1860 (Cambridge University Press, 1985) and is the general editor for a forthcoming complete edition of Emerson's sermons, also to be published by the University of Missouri Press.Linda Allardt, Assistant Professor English at the University of Rochester, edited volume 12 and was the senior editor for volume 15 of the Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks and is also the author of two books of poetry.David W. Hill, Associate Professor of SUNY-Oswego, coedited volume 15 of the Journals of Miscellaneous Notebooks and has pubished several articles, including one in Emerson Centenary Essays, edited by Joel Myerson (Southern Illinois University Press, 1982).