English Literature

Ralph Waldo Emerson  (1803 - 1882)      Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer and poet who led the Transcendentalism  Movement of Mid-19 century.   He expressed the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay 'Nature'. Following this ground breaking work he gave a speech entitled “The American Scholar” in 1837, which Oliver Holmes Sr. considered to America’s “Intellectual Declaration of Independence”.  His well-known essays are :  Self-Reliance The Over Soul  Circles   The Poet and  Experience  Emerson is one of the several figures who took a more pantheist or Pandeist approach by rejecting views of god as separate from World. When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was “ Infinitude of the Private Man ” He is also known as a mentor and friend of fellow transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau.  Emerson anonymously published his first essay Nature on 9 Sep 1838.   The transcendental group began to publish its flagship journal