Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was an American philosopher, essayist, and poet who founded American transcendentalism and exerted immense influence on American intellectual and spiritual life. Born in Boston to a Unitarian clergy family, Emerson himself became a minister before resigning to pursue independent philosophical work. His essay 'Nature' (1836), followed by 'Self-Reliance' and 'The Over-Soul' in Essays: First Series (1841), articulated a philosophy centered on intuition, the divinity of nature, individual spiritual autonomy, and the necessity of nonconformity. Emerson's vision of direct spiritual experience accessible to common individuals, his celebration of American democracy and natural genius, his essays on history, education, literature, and self-culture, and his lectures throughout America shaped the intellectual foundation of nineteenth-century American thought. His influence extended to figures ranging from Thoreau to Whitman to the American pragmatists.