The Transcendentalists

1. The Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau

2. Emerson: 1803-1882 • Appealed to intellectuals and public • Thousands of lectures • Essayist / poet / philosopher

3. Beginnings • Eighth-generation Unitarian minister developed disbelief re: central doctrines of his religion resigned from ministry, went to Europe met English Romantics -William Wordsworth -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

4. Emerson’s Lectures -Demanded that American scholars free themselves from the shackles of the past • -called for rejection of institutional religion in favor of a personal relation with God • Banned from Harvard for 3 decades (for “denying the divinity of Jesus”)

5. Emerson as Guru • Concord became a destination for truth-seeking young people who saw Emerson as their guru • The young responded to his predictions that they were on the verge of a new age • Intellectuals responded to his philosophical ideas about the relations among humanity, nature, and God • Society as a whole responded to his optimism

6. Emerson’s Later Years • The death of son Waldo caused Emerson to go into an “emotional shell” • In his later years suffered from memory loss and mostly stopped lecturing

7. Henry David Thoreau • 1817-1862 • Born in Concord, MA • Nonconformist at Harvard • Attended chapel in green because “the rules required black” • Studied English lit and German philosophers (underpinnings of Transcendentalism)

8. The “Underachiever” • Was fired after 2 weeks as a schoolteacher because he refused to whip the children • Marriage proposal was turned down • Had little interest in the family business • Had an impressive education but had not realized literary ambitions

9. Walden Pond • At age 28, went to live alone in nature at Walden Pond • “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately” • Part journal, part philosophy • Thoreau contemplates himself, his environment, and the state of humankind

10. Walden Pond Continued • “The mass of men . . . Lead lives of quiet desperation.” • -Uses nature, rather than the stylists of the past, as a model • A style that imitated nature would speak fundamental spiritual truths

11. Civil Disobedience • Refused to pay poll tax to protest the Mexican War • Many believed war was attempt to extend American slaveholding territory • Spent one night in jail (it was a matter of principle) • Angry upon his release when he found out that his aunt had paid the tax.

12. The Impact of Civil Disobedience • Thoreau’s account of this act and other essays had a profound influence on practitioners of passive resistance, such as: • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. • Mohandas K. Gandhi

13. A Man Dying With Pleasure and Peace • Moved back to his parents’ home after living at Walden Pond • Made pencils (family business) • Odd jobs (excellent carpenter, mason, and gardener), • Died from tuberculosis • Town constable Sam Staples is said to have told Emerson that he had “never seen a man dying with so much pleasure and peace.”