The American Scholar: With a Biography by William Peterfield Trent

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), more commonly referred to as simply Waldo, was an American lecturer, essayist, poet, philosopher, and leader of the mid-1900s transcendentalist movement. Emerson wrote on a number of subjects and became a symbol of individualism, presenting his ideas through his many essays and over 1,500 lectures. On August 31, 1837 at the First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Emerson first gave his speech "The American Scholar" in front of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of...