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Ralph Emerson Biography

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, born May 25, 1803, grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. Ralph, son of Ruth Haskins and William Emerson, was the fourth of eighth children born from Ruth and William Emerson. Although he had many siblings, only few survived throughout his childhood. William Emerson, Ralph's father, was one of Boston’s leading citizens, and a Unitarian Minister. Ralph went to Boston Latin School in 1812 when he was nine years old. In October 1817, at age fourteen, Emerson went to Harvard College and was arranged freshman messenger for the president, requiring Emerson to fetch errant students and send messages to faculty. As a student, he studied more and relaxed less than some of his classmates. He won several minor prizes for his writing. When …show more content…

Although Ruth managed to protect and educate her sons, financial insecurity quickly started becoming an issue. The first church gave Ruth and her family a paid allowance for a while as well as a parish house, the resident of a Clergyman. The poverty in which the Martin family lived in did not prevent his mother from sending Ralph to the Boston Latin School at age nine, followed by the Harvard University when he was fourteen years old. After he graduated, Ralph attempted a career in teaching but later decided to go back to Harvard to go to divinity school. He was licensed as a minister in 1826 and ordained to that you Unitarian Church in …show more content…

There he was the center of discussion known as the Transcendentalist Club; where the members met up to discuss religious and philosophical issues. They spoke out against rationalism and materialism some movements best known are the essays by Emerson and Walden’s: Life in the wood (1854). The name Transcendental Club was given to the group by the public and not by its participants. The name was coined in a January 1837 review of Emerson's essay "Nature" and was intended disparagingly. Ralph and another group member created the theory of Transcendentalism, meaning; humanity and nature are in essence the same are merely different manifestations of the divine spirt. Transcendentalism has been one of the most influential ideas in American history.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance” is the most widely known and misunderstood

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