Ralph Waldo Emerson Biography

By way of historical progress, all Benders of the Arc are influenced by or stand on the shoulders of previous Benders. These influences notwithstanding, the one attribute found among all Great Peacemakers is an advanced level of independent, critical thinking. Indeed, the ability for anyone to affect meaningful change is firstly predicated upon an ability to identify deleterious aspects of the status quo. One American, in particular, exemplified and emphasized the virtue of open, creative thought. His philosophies would, in turn, spread out over the cultural landscape and across time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. He began attending Harvard College at the age of fourteen. After graduating, he taught at his brother’s school before enrolling at Harvard Divinity School in 1825. Emerson was ordained pastor to a Unitarian church in 1829 and resigned after a few short years.

In 1833, Emerson embarked on travels to Europe where he met with some of the most fertile minds of the time. While in Paris, he visited the Jardin des Plantes and became inspired by Jussieu’s classification of flowering plants and the way in which this method of organization led to an interconnected perspective of nature.

Emerson returned to America with a decidedly different focus and began to hit his stride as a philosopher. He moved to Concord, Massachusetts where he associated with prominent transcendentalist thinkers and writers. His first essay, “Nature,” was foundational to the movement and established him as a leading figure of the American Transcendentalists. Their belief was that God was not detached and distant, rather, God was accessible through one’s own soul and connection with nature.

Before long Emerson began a career as a lecturer. He would eventually deliver over 1,500 addresses on a vast array of topics, publishing dozens of his talks as essays. One lecture stands out in terms of its societal impact. It is necessary to understand the cultural climate of the time to appreciate its import.

He would eventually deliver over 1,500 addresses on a vast array of topics.

Up until the American Revolution, populations throughout history were organized around monarchies whose various social strata served the ruling class in one form or another. Common people were not given the authority to creatively think and innovate for themselves or for the collective good. The American Revolution dramatically changed the common man’s opportunities. It was clear to Emerson, however, that although America had won independence, few had adapted intellectually to these possibilities.

In 1837, sixty-one years after the American Declaration of Independence, Emerson delivered his lecture “The American Scholar” which would later be referred to as America’s “Intellectual Declaration of Independence.” It was a clarion call for Americans to wake up and seize the true mantle of independence by tapping their own creative geniuses.

Statue of Ralph Waldo Emerson, sculpted by Frank Duveneck, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio

Emerson’s philosophies, along with those of other transcendentalists, had a powerful impact on the American literary scene and eventually the American spirit of innovation and entrepreneurialism. Throughout history, champions of social change have been directly or indirectly influenced by this movement as it continues to resonate within philosophical and political circles to this day. 

Emerson died on April 21, 1882, after contracting pneumonia. He was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. He was interred wearing a white robe given to him by Daniel Chester French, the American sculptor who designed the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Steve Simon, pastel and colored pencil on wood panel