Transcendentalism+2nd

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__Born: July 12, 1817 Died: May 6, 1962 Education: Harvard University (1833-1837)__

"If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

__ Famous Transcendentalists  __ I, Henry David Thoreau, and many other transcendentalists had made a huge impact during the transcendentalism era. Other writers, novelists, poets, preachers, and myself believed it was time for the United States to come up with their own form of American literature and art and stop looking up to the European countries, such as Great Britain.

I, Henry David Thoereau, am considered one of the leading transcendentalists during the transcendentalism era. I was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. I attended Harvard University from 1883 through 1837. During my college life, I began reading a lot of other people's work, especially from Ralph Emerson. I was very impressed with one of Ralph's essay which was called //Nature.// This essay had really inspired and touched me on how nature and man can closely relate to each other. So I began to study it and it later influence me to write my own essay later on. After graduating, me and my brother John began teaching at schools and soon we opened up our own grammar school. Then in 1842, my brother died of tetanus, which is also called lockjaw from cutting himself while shaving. After my brother's death, Ralph Emerson and I became very close friends. Ralph had introduced me to many different writers such as Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ellery Channing. In 1845, I decided to stay in a small cabin on Ralph's property in the woods, right next to Walden Pond. I lived there for two years, living there as simple as a man can live, by farming, meditating and writing as much as I could. During this time, I was able to work on several books and essays. One of them was called //A Week On The Concord and Merrimack Rivers,// which I wrote in my dead brother's honor. This book describes the boat trip that me and by brother took before his death. Another book I wrote during this time was called //Walden.// This book basically desribed my life during the two years I was living in the woods. An important essay I wrote during the time I was in the woods was called //Civil Disobedience.// I wrote this essay through my own personal experience. I did not like paying poll taxes or any other, certain taxes because the taxes revenues supported slavery. As a result of me not paying my taxes, I was arrested. This essay was about my feelings on certain government laws, where some are ridiciously followed. I believed that you could disobey certain laws without resorting to violence. I believe most people mostly remember me through my books and essays, such as the //Civil Disobedience// and //Walden//. I believe it has touch many people to do the same thing and support what I did. [] <Thomas Hampson's thoughts on Henry David Thoreau

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very close friend and a mentor to me. Many people consider him as the key figure during the transcendentalism era. Ralph Emerson was born on May 3, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1817, like myself, Ralph attended Harvard University. After graduating from Harvard, Ralph became a preacher like his father, William Emerson. Later, Ralph decided that being a preacher was not for him and he dropped out of this position in 1832 and moved to Europe. Ralph returned to America two years later and took the position as a lecturer. During the same time, Ralph formed a group of transcendentalists that consisted mostly people from New England. Some of the people that were a part of this group were Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker and myself. Through this group, our very first journal was created in 1840, in which we called it, //The Dial//. In 1836, Ralph published his first major essay called //Nature.// In this essay, Ralph described that nature helps, forms and widens a man's imagination. This essay helped form the base and movement of transcendentalism.

[] <-Thomas Hampson's thoughts on Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sarah Margaret Fuller, better known as Margaret Fuller, was a journalist and a strong person who fought and defended for woman's right during the transcendentalism era. Margaret was born on May 23, 1810, in Cambridgeport, Maryland. During her childlife, she had a well-rounded education because of her father's teaching. She also was taught two different languages from her father, one of them being Latin. At age 14, Margaret's parent sent her to Groton, Massachusetts, to attend the School of Young Ladies. In 1839, Margaret held many conferences and seminars for five years, talking about many different topics. Most of the conferences and seminars were for mostly women. During this time, Margaret became a very close friend with Ralph Emerson. Ralph gave Margaret a job as editor for //The Dial.// Through this job, Margaret wrote many journals and articles on many different topics, including woman's right and equality, art, and literature. In 1844, Margaret moved on and got better job, working for //The New York Tribune"//as a critic and then was lifted to editor. Through the //The New York Tribune,// Margaret was able to expand the journals and articles she wrote in //The Dial// about woman's right and equality. One of her new, expanded essay was called, //Woman in the Nineteenth Century.// This essay has been considered one of the first feminist writings in the United States. During our era, Margaret Fuller was best known for her feminist activities for women's rights and equality, showing her feelings and ideas throught her writings.

​ __Historical Events & Key Events__


 * May 5, 1819William Channing preaches his sermon, //Unitarian Christianity//.
 * 1825---Elizabeth Peabody and Bronson Alcott publishes //Record of a School.//
 * September, 1836-Ralph Emerson forms the Transcendental Club; Ralph Emerson publishes //Nature.//
 * 1839-1834---Margaret Fuller helds "Conversations" (meetings and conferences) on certain topics for women.
 * 1840-1844---//The Dial// Magazine is published through the Transcendental Club.
 * 1845--Margaret Fuller publishes her book //Woman In The Nineteenth Century.//
 * 1845-1847--Henry Thoreau stays in a cabin on Ralph Emerson's land, next to Walden Pond.
 * 1846--Henry Thoreau thrown in jail for refusing to pay his poll tax.
 * 1849--Henry Thoreau publishes //Civil Disobedience.//
 * 1854--Henry Thoreau publishes //Walden//.
 * 1855--Walt Whitman publishes //Leaves of Grass.//
 * 1860--Elizabeth Peabody establishes one of the very first English-based kindergartens in the United States.

__Key Concepts __ In my younger years I attended Harvard University and took courses in rhetoric, classics, philosophy, mathematics, and environmental science. I was never quite sure of what I intended my profession to be. I soon crossed paths with Emerson and upon meeting him I became inspired to become a writer. Some of my works include __Walden__ and an essay titled “ [|Civil Disobedience]”. In Walden I discuss my time spent on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s property near Walden Pond. I like to think of my experience in my cabin at Walden Pond as an experiment to see what would become of me when I live in isolation. What I found was that I was not really in isolation, but that nature boasts better companionship than that of man. I spent two years in the woods enjoying the liberating individuality that one experiences when living a simple self reliant life among nature. When I wrote civil disobedience my intentions were simply to help people to come to the realization that men need to obey their conscience for in that is where true wisdom lies. The world needs more men in society to be individuals and not submit to the conformity that is imposed by the fleeting calls from a majority. True wisdom does not always reside in the majority, but instead is derived from ones innermost conscience. When men are willing to trust themselves and not conform, then men are truly free. For it is when men decide for themselves their best courses of action that they become truly living. My hopes in writing civil disobedience are that men will cease to be acted upon by the world and make decisions based on their own pure conscience.

__Cultural & Literary Climate__ During this time period Romanticism was flourishing in Europe and America just got the Louisiana Purchase. There were also a lot of technical advances that would eventually lead to the industrial revolution. When the wave of romance came to America, authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and myself. put a new spin on the European romance. This American romantic movement became known as Transcendentalism and became coined with “self realization,” “self expression,” and “self reliance.” This American literature revolution is what put America in the realm of literature. Transcendentalists valued personal thought and intuition over material, and majority consensus. This movement became one of the main periods of American Individualism. Not only was it the first form of individualism, but this time period was also the time when many other timeless themes would develop such as the purity of nature, and carpe diem. In my book, __Walden__ the theme of carpe diem is expressed: “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.” The writing style also came to be more expressive, and certain writers really started to develop a tone such as Edgar Allen Poe, and Emily Dickenson.

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