FREE ESSAY ON A BIOGRAPHY OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON

A BIOGRAPHY OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON

One of Americas most influential thinkers and authors was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph Waldo
Emerson was born in Boston on May 25, 1803. Emerson's dad died when he was only eight,
which forced his mom to take in boarders to support the family's needs. When Emerson was
only 14, he entered Harvard, where he ran became a sort of secretary for the president of
the university. When he graduated Harvard, at age 18, he became a teacher. When he got
tired or teaching, he enrolled in the Divinity School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to
become a preacher. After his graduation of the Divinity School, he started his minister
career as a guest speaker at local churches. Three years after his graduation, he was
appointed minister of the Second Church of Boston. Because of personal doubts about the
Church doctrine, he felt he could no longer administer the Lord's supper, he quit as
minister of the Second Church of Boston. 
After Emerson left his career as a minister, he sailed to Europe, where he met many
prominent European writers. A year later, he returned back to the United States, where he
settled in Concord Massachusetts. At an oration at Harvard, he gave one of his most
famous, if not his most famous speech, The American Scholar. The American Scholar, was a
speech about being intellectually independent. Intellectually Independent simply means
that everyone should think for themselves, and not become a parrot of other mens
thinking. This speech was very important in Emerson's life, because he was able to
mention his theory of Transcendentalism to an open audience. Emerson's most popular
written work, was probably Nature. Nature, was an essay on the theory of
Transcendentalism, and his personal views of nature. 
Although Emerson wrote many famous works, his main source of income was being a public
speaker. Among the places Emerson spoke were lyceums, and universities. Although Emerson
mainly spoke at lyceums, most of his famous speeches, were the ones he gave while
lecturing at universities. Emerson's best known essays are: The Over-Soul, Compensation,
and Self-Reliance.
Emerson died on April 27, 1882, as a result of a small illness, he was buried in Sleepy
Hollow Cemetery.