Ralph Waldo Emerson1803-1882

Bio & Significance• One of the 19th century’s greatest writers and thinkers.• Born in Boston, educated at Harvard.• Ordained minister, renowned orator. Influenced Thoreau, Whitman, etc.

Leader of transcendentalist movement.• Most notable works:• “Self-Reliance,” 1841 (which we’re going to read)• “Nature”: 1836, divinity exists in nature and only in nature do we discover true

reality• “Nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us.”

• “The American Scholar”: 1837 speech to Phi Beta Kappa society, America’s “Intellectual Declaration of Independence”; urges students to become Man Thinking• “The one thing in the world of value, is, the active soul– the soul, free, sovereign, active.”

Characteristics of Transcendentalism (late 1820s-1830s)

•Everything is a reflection of the divine soul•There is an ideal spiritual reality that transcends

(goes beyond) the empirical (physical)• Intuition is used to behold God’s spirit in

nature/in the souls•Self-reliance and individualism outweigh

external authority and blind conformity

Favorite Emerson quotes from “The American Scholar:”• “There is some awe mixed with the joy of our surprise, when this poet,

who lived in some past world, two or three hundred years ago, says that which lies close to my own soul, that which I had well nigh thought and said.”

• “One must be an inventor to read well.”

Henry David Thoreau1817-1862

Bio & Significance• Born in Concord, MA• Educated at Harvard• Close friend/mentee of Emerson• Author, poet, leading transcendentalist• Abolitionist• Famous for:• Walden experiment (1845-1847, 2 years, 2 months, 2 days of solitude and simple living,

getting in touch with nature)• “Civil Disobedience:” refusal to obey laws you find unjust. Thoreau spent a night in jail

for refusing to pay a poll tax to a nation that condoned slavery.