On May 25th 1803, Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston Massachusetts. His parents were William and Ruth Haskins Emerson. Emerson was born into a very privileged family because his mother was the daughter of a distiller who had been quite successful. On the other hand his father was a highly distinguished minister. This religious background was deeply rooted into Emerson's ancestry as his grandfather too was a well known minister. Thus it was expected that Emerson would follow in these footsteps and he did begin on this road but branched out later on. In 1811, William Emerson died and Ralph Emerson continued on with his education with the push and encouragement of his mother Ruth Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson went on to attend Boston Latin School, Harvard College which consisted of a year of studies in divinity. A little interesting fact is that at Harvard College he was thirtieth in a class of fifty-nine. This shows that Emerson still had some more maturing to do. Also his studies were interrupted often because he was constantly sick. All in all Emerson obtained a worthwhile education. His skills of talking and preaching earned him a job as the ordained minister of the Second Church. It was during this time period of 1832-1835, while preaching, that Emerson fell in love with and married Ellen Tucker who was the daughter of a merchant. He held this post at the church for approximately two and half years. Emerson finally chose to resign because he could not accept some of the doctrine in the church. In particular he refused to serve the communion because of good conscience.

During the 1830's, Ralph Waldo Emerson began to mature intellectually. Overall Emerson was a very shy and quiet individual and felt most comfortable in his role of clergyman. However, he soon showed a more outspoken side when he began to question some of the church doctrine. For example he began to question the validity of the institutional church and became displeased with Unitarianism. For example he questioned the miracles of Jesus and whether they served as proof of the mission. Thus this led to his resignation from the church in 1832. During this time Emerson also faced another loss in his life. His nineteen year old wife, Ellen Tucker died in 1831 of tuberculosis. The death of his wife had quite a toll on Emerson's spirit and a trip abroad would be the only remedy to help heal his wounds.

The trip that Emerson took to Europe in December of 1832 was just the uplifting that he needed. This trip was duration of ten months. The biggest inspiration was the Jardin de Plants in Paris. Here Emerson realized the connection between man and nature which became a popular topic in the philosophy of his essays. This also served as an inspiration from which he drew his poems. When Emerson returned to America in the fall of 1833, he began giving lectures and speeches. He began by giving lectures on natural history and his topics of interest soon spread. Emerson lectured all over the place form Boston, to Missouri and even to Iowa. He lectured on topics anywhere from English literature and philosophy to history and just everyday human life.

In 1834, Ralph Emerson moved to Concorde and he married Lydia Jackson of Plymouth. He started a new family and began planning out his first published work Nature. Lydia and Emerson had two children. The first born was their son Waldo and later their daughter Ellen Tucker who was named after Emerson's first wife. At the same time Emerson began meeting and discussing issues with other writers. Writers such as Margaret Fuller and Amos Bronson began looking to Emerson as an influence of intellectual leadership. Thus this was the beginnings of the Transcendental club. This diverse group of individuals consisted of liberal Unitarian ministers as well as moderates and eventually important transcendental leaders. However hot debates within this group led to the break up. According to Emerson he defined Transcendentalism as "Idealism as it appears in 1842." Overall the Liberal Unitarians wanted to find a way to define and apply the concept of self reliance in five areas which consisted of theology, epistemology, art, the theory of nature, and social reform.

As mentioned earlier, Emerson's first book was Nature. Emerson viewed this work as the concept that "Romantic idea of nature as substitute for Revelation". He believed that individuals could not just take knowledge from tradition alone, but that knowledge could also be acquired from firsthand experience. According to Ralph Emerson the four purposes of nature are: material resource, standard of beauty, network of visible symbols, and the discipline in order to Understanding and the reason. These ideas of Emerson were germinated from his influence from Plato, Emanuel Siedenburg and even Coleridge. Another work of Ralph Waldo Emerson was Essays published in 1840 which sold over 1500 copies as well as Essays: 2nd series in 1844. Another popular work of Emerson's is his public address "The American Scholar" which was presented at the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Society and in the public sold out within a month.

Emerson continued to reflect his ideas about religion and its relation with the doctrine. It had been this principle earlier in his life that had caused him to resign as the minister from the church. He believed that religion should not be solely based on doctrine but on actual experiences as well. Thus he contributed these ideas which are reflected in the Transcendentalism movement. The debate between Unitarianism and Transcendentalism was over the external and internal basis of religion whether miracles of the doctrine or personal inspiration were more reliable. With the help of Margaret Fuller, Emerson and Fuller founded Dial Magazine as a part of the transcendental movement. Emerson's gaining popularity allowed him to influence other writers and helped develop American literature. In 1842, the death of Emerson's son Waldo took a toll on him and such feelings were transitioned over to his writing. This period was not just a dreary time for Emerson but he was internationally known. Emerson had become known for both his essays as well as his poetry. However critics sometimes snapped at his poetry. Yet still the quality of his work was greatly appreciated and respected by most. Some characteristics of his poetry are his symbolic images and the irregularities of line length as well as rhythm.

Overall Ralph Waldo Emerson was quite a modest individual. He did not take his intelligence for granted as he refers to his intellectual ability being due to the grace of some higher power. He also did not wish his followers to be like him but rather to use his ideas as mere models to form new brilliant ideas of their own. Ralph Waldo Emerson had a great impact on various aspects of American society. He impacted pragmatism by influencing William James and John Devey. At the same time he influenced Theodore Park and the religious movement of social gospel influence. Ralph Waldo Emerson died on April 27, 1882 from a decline in health due to aphasia. He will be remembered for his intelligence in philosophy and existentialism which is reflected through his many essays and poem.