Essays

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mar 2016 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

The major works of one of the nineteenth century’s most influential philosophers

In the early days of the American experiment, as the states spread across the continent and the young nation was reshaped by the Industrial Revolution, no intellectual held more power than Ralph Waldo Emerson. The leading light of the Transcendentalists, Emerson spent his life devising a uniquely American philosophy, a worldview as suited to the bustling docks of Boston as it is to the endless expanses of the West. Through lectures, letters, and essays, Emerson helped a nation discover its identity.
 
In this collection, which includes such monumental essays as “Nature,” “Self-Reliance,” and “The American Scholar,” Emerson brilliantly articulates his philosophy of individualism and nonconformity. An inspiration to Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and countless other literary and political figures, Emerson exerted a profound influence that continues to be felt more than a century after his death.
 
This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
 

About the author

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was an essayist, poet, and philosopher. The founder of the Transcendentalist movement that dominated American letters during the mid-nineteenth century, he mentored Thoreau and Whitman, and defined the shape of American literature for a generation.