Pass It On

If I have done aught for you, oh friend, I do not ask that you return the favor, but do for God’s sake pass it on.

-       Ralph Waldo Emerson[1]

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[1] Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1803, son of Ruth Haskins and the Rev. William Emerson, a Unitarian minister. He was named after his mother’s brother Ralph and his father’s great-grandmother Rebecca Waldo. When Ralph was nearly eight, his father died from stomach cancer. He was raised by his mother, and was influenced greatly by his aunt Mary Moody Emerson, who lived with the family off and on and corresponded with Emerson until her death in 1863.

Emerson’s schooling began at the Boston Latin School in 1812. At 14, he went to Harvard College. To cover school expenses, he worked as a waiter and as an occasional teacher. After Harvard, Emerson spent several years as a schoolmaster, then went to Harvard Divinity School. Boston’s Second Church invited Emerson to serve as its junior pastor and he was ordained in 1829. Later that year, Emerson married Ellen Louisa Tucker. The couple moved to Boston. Ellen developed tuberculosis, and died in early 1831. Emerson was devastated. He began to disagree with the church’s methods, and resigned in 1832.

Emerson toured Europe in 1832. During the trip, he met William Wordsworth (see footnote 46), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (footnote 134), John Stuart Mill, and Thomas Carlyle (footnote 21). Carlyle in particular was a strong influence on Emerson; the two were correspondents until Carlyle’s death in 1881. Emerson returned home in 1833, and soon moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where in 1835 he bought a house. Later in the year he married again, to Lydia. They eventually had five children together. 

Emerson and other like-minded intellectuals soon founded the Transcendental Club, which served as a center for the new movement. He anonymously published his first essay, Nature, in 1836. A year later he delivered his now-famous The American Scholar at the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge. In it, he declared literary independence for the United States. In 1837, Emerson befriended Henry David Thoreau (see footnote 108). He asked Thoreau if he kept a journal, spurring him to a life of writing.

In 1838 Emerson was invited to Harvard Divinity School for the school’s graduation address. His speech discounted Biblical miracles and proclaimed that, while Jesus was a great man, he was not God. Emerson was denounced as an atheist, and was not re-invited to Harvard for 30 years. Emerson oversaw the first publication of the Transcendentalist journal The Dial in 1840. He made a good living as a lecturer—he was in high demand—and was able to buy eleven acres of land near Walden Pond, where Thoreau would famously spend time. In 1862, Thoreau died of tuberculosis at the age of 44. Emerson delivered his eulogy. He referred to Thoreau as his best friend, despite a falling out they had had. Another friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne, died two years later; he served as a pall-bearer.

In the early 1870s, Emerson began losing his memory. His Concord home caught fire in 1872; Emerson called for help from neighbors and, giving up on putting out the flames, all attempted to save as many objects as possible. The fire marked an end to Emerson’s serious lecturing career; from then on, he would lecture only on special occasions and only in front of familiar audiences. While the house was being rebuilt, Emerson took a trip to England, the main European continent, and Egypt. The problems with his memory increased—he could no longer remember his name.  Embarrassed, he ceased his public appearances by 1879. In 1882, he went walking despite having an apparent cold and was caught in a sudden rain shower. Two days later, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He died soon after, and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  (Source: Wikipedia)