Ralph Waldo Emerson Brief Biography

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1821 and Harvard Divinity School in 1826. He was ordained pastor to a Unitarian church in 1829 but resigned after a few short years.
 
He embarked on travels to Europe where he met with some of the most fertile minds of the time.  He returned to America with a different bent and began giving lectures, many of which were later published as essays, on a vast array of subjects.
 
He moved to Concord, Massachusetts where he associated with prominent transcendentalist thinkers and writers and became the leading figure of the American Transcendentalists.  Their belief was that God was not detached and distant, but rather accessible through one’s own soul and connection with nature.
 
Emerson’s philosophies, along with those of protégé Henry David Thoreau and other transcendentalists had a powerful impact on a variety of champions of social change throughout history and their influence resonates within philosophical and political circles to this day.