Ralph Waldo Emerson - Essays: "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1803. Although most widely known as an outstanding poet he was also an essayist and lecturer. A leader of the Transcendentalist poetry movement his works are amongst the finest written in the 19th Century. Many of his essays were written firstly to be delivered as lecturers before becoming honed and published as essays. His essay entitled 'The American Scholar' was put forward by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr as America's Intellec...