Ralph Waldo Emerson (Cosimo Classics Biography)

Ralph Waldo Emerson whose original profession and calling was as a Unitarian minister left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. Emerson went on to become one of Americas best-known and best-loved 19th century figures. Along with Thoreau Hawthorne Fuller the Peabody sisters the Alcott family Jonas Very the Ripleys and the Channings Emerson helped shape a circle of poets reformers artists and thinkers who helped to define a new identity for American art. In this biography written by American physician poet and humorist Oliver Wendell Holmes Emersons life is traced from his family genealogy through his childhood his years in school his ordination and early writings to his years as a preeminent thinker lecturer poet and writer. The book originally published in 1885 even offers a look at the future of his reputation from the late 19th century point of view.