Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) is one of America’s most recognized writers and orators. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout his life his lived and worked mostly in the New England area, specifically Concord Massachusetts, though he did do travel across the states, Europe, and Africa. He started off as a minster, but left the profession due to internal struggles with his own religious beliefs. Emerson’s internal conflict would eventually spawn into an entire philosophy known as Transcendentalism. He along with personal friends and colleagues such as Walt Whitman, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau were the founders of Transcendentalist philosophy. During his life, Emerson was a proponent of women’s rights and an abolitionist. Some of his most famous writings include Self-Reliance, Nature, The Soul, Harvard Divinity School Address, and the American Scholar.
Friendship was included in Emerson’s first edition of Essays, published in1841. Ironically, this essay was written In Emerson’s own self defense of his seemingly cold and unfriendly manners. One of his close friends, Margaret Fuller was particularly critical of Emerson’s behavior towards his confidants.
“She taxed me as often before, so now more explicitly, with inhospitality of The Soul. She and C. [Caroline Sturges] would gladly be my friends, yet our intercourse is not friendship, but literary gossip. I count and weigh, but do not love. They make no progress with me, but however often we meet, we still meet as strangers. They feel wronged in such relation…” (McNulty, 1946, p.391).
Perhaps Emerson was a naturally cold person, but he had also suffered many great losses in his life that may also explain his hesitation to become close to others. He had lost his father, two brothers, his beloved first wife, and his first born son before he had even reached the age of forty. Though he struggled to let his own friends know how much they meant to him to their faces, he expressed himself beautifully in the essay Friendship, “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new…My friends have come to me unsought. The great God gave then to me,” (McNulty, 1946, p.392).
Friendship was included in Emerson’s first edition of Essays, published in1841. Ironically, this essay was written In Emerson’s own self defense of his seemingly cold and unfriendly manners. One of his close friends, Margaret Fuller was particularly critical of Emerson’s behavior towards his confidants.
“She taxed me as often before, so now more explicitly, with inhospitality of The Soul. She and C. [Caroline Sturges] would gladly be my friends, yet our intercourse is not friendship, but literary gossip. I count and weigh, but do not love. They make no progress with me, but however often we meet, we still meet as strangers. They feel wronged in such relation…” (McNulty, 1946, p.391).
Perhaps Emerson was a naturally cold person, but he had also suffered many great losses in his life that may also explain his hesitation to become close to others. He had lost his father, two brothers, his beloved first wife, and his first born son before he had even reached the age of forty. Though he struggled to let his own friends know how much they meant to him to their faces, he expressed himself beautifully in the essay Friendship, “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new…My friends have come to me unsought. The great God gave then to me,” (McNulty, 1946, p.392).