The Poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Leader of the transcendalist movement and hero of American individualism and freedom

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 25th, 1803, the son of Ruth Haskins and the Rev. William Emerson, a Unitarian minister. Emerson was the second of five sons who survived into adulthood.

His father died before Emerson was eight and the young boy was raised by his mother and other female members of the family.

Emerson's formal schooling began at the Boston Latin School in 1812 when he was 9. In October 1817, at 14, Emerson went to Harvard College. He did not excel as...