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Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882. Ralph Waldo Emerson Read both quotes. Choose the one you like best. What do you like about it? . Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882. Bio Born in Boston Son of Unitarian minister His father died when he was 8 Attended school at Harvard
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Ralph Waldo EmersonRead both quotes. Choose the one you like best. What do you like about it?
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882 • Bio • Born in Boston • Son of Unitarian minister • His father died when he was 8 • Attended school at Harvard • Made his living as a schoolmaster until he went back to Harvard to become a minister • Became a minister in 1829, resigned in 1832 • Formulated and first expressed the idea of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay • Founder of Transcendentalism • Made a living as a teacher, popular essayist, and lecturer
Scandal! • In 1838 Emerson was invited back to Harvard for the graduation address • His remarks outraged and shocked the whole Protestant community at the time because he proclaimed that Jesus was a great man, but not God • He was denounced as an atheist • By the mid-1880s his position had become standard Unitarian doctrine
Emerson • Essays • “Self-Reliance” • “Nature” • “The Over-Soul” and more… • Poetry • “The Snow-Storm” • “Concord Hymn” • “Give All to Love” and many more…
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) • Major Ideas • Need for a new national vision • Use of personal experience and nature to achieve the divine • Founder of Transcendentalism • The notion of the cosmic Over-Soul • Compensation (You get what you envision/put out there.)