A Chronology of
Ralph Waldo Emerson's Life
1803 - born May 25 in
Boston to William Emerson and Ruth Haskins Emerson
1807 - (April 26), death of
brother John Clarke
1811 - (May 12) father,
William Emerson, dies
1812-17 - attends Boston
Latin School
1820 - begins keeping
journals which he would continue throughout virtually
all his life. The first series are called "Wide
World", expressing his current thoughts on any and all
topics.
1821-25 - attends Harvard
College, in a rather undistinguished manner
-
also teaches "school for young ladies"
1822 - publishes first
article, in The Christian Disciple
1825 - admitted to middle
class of Harvard Divinity School
1826 - preaches first
sermon in Samuel Ripley's pulpit
1827 - sails to South
Carolina and St. Augustine, Florida seeking better
health
1827-29 - serves as
"supply" preacher
1828 - engaged to Ellen
Tucker, age 17
- mental breakdown of brother
Edward
1829 - ordained as junior
minister of Second Church (Unitarian) in
Boston
- (September 10) - marries Ellen Tucker
1831 - (February 8) -
Ellen dies of tuberculosis
1832 - preaches "Last
Supper" sermon, (October 28) resigns from Second
Church
- (December 25) first trip to Italy,
France, England and Scotland
- formulates many
of his self-reliance, "Nature" ideas on trip
1833 - meets Coleridge,
Wordsworth, has inspiring meeting with Carlyle
-
interest in science rises, sees connections with
spirituality and the unity of all
- returns
(October 9), enthusiastic about his new embracement of
Transcendentalism
- gives first lecture "The
Uses of Natural History" at the Masonic Temple, Boston
(November 5)
1833 - Frederic Hedge
publishes article on Coleridge in The Christian
Examiner which provides the first American recognition
of the claims of Transcendentalism
1834 - settles in Concord.
Boards with Ezra Ripley, his stepgrandfather. "Nature"
and next set of lectures written there.
-
(October 1) - brother Edward dies unexpectedly, age
29. Edward once said, "the arrow of the angel had gone
too deep".
- Aunt Mary came to live with them
for a year.
- Coming together of influences
encourage Emerson's conviction that what is beyond
nature is revealed to us through nature, that the
miraculous is revealed through the scientific and the
natural, and that the inner life is revealed through
the life of the senses. - Bronson Alcott establishes
Temple School in Boston, a "remarkable" experiment in
Transcendental education
1835 - lectures on
"Biography" from January - March
- meets Bronson
Alcott
- (September 14) - marries Lydia (Lydian)
Jackson
- Margaret Fuller gives her
"Conversations" to "interested persons"
1835-36 - Lecture Series
on "English Literature" - November-January
1836 - (May 9) - brother
Charles dies
- (September 9) "Nature"
published
- meets Margaret Fuller
- helps
form Transcendental Club in September
- (October
30) - son Waldo born
- Carlyle publishes "Sartor
Resartus"
1837 - RWE gives "The
American Scholar" address at Harvard to seniors, one
of whom is Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau, responding to
a suggestion of Emerson's, begins to keep a journal.
Leads to an extraordinary lifetime of
journal-keeping.
- writes "The Concord Hymn" and
delivers "The American Scholar," the Phi Beta Kappa
Society oration, at Harvard
1838 - (July 15) gives
"Divinity School Address" at Harvard. Later the
prominent Andrews Norton attacks Emerson's views as
"the latest form of infidelity"
- delivers
"Literary Ethics" lecture at Dartmouth
- Jones
Very makes first visit to Concord
1839 - (February 24) -
daughter Ellen born
- Lecture series "The
Present Age" from December to February, 1840
-
Elizabeth Peabody opens a bookshop that becomes the
gathering place for Transcendentalists.
- Jones
Very publishes Essays and Poems
1840-44 - writes for The
Dial with Margaret Fuller as editor First issue comes
out July 1, 1840.
1841 - (March 20) "Essays"
(First Series) - published
- includes
"Self-Reliance", "The Over-Soul" among others
-
Thoreau moves into Emerson home (April 26) for
two-year stay, becomes household handyman, and father
figure when Emerson is on lecture tour
-
(November 22) - daughter Edith born
- Brook
Farm, an experiment in communal living, established by
George Ripley and colleagues. Emerson does not
join.
- Theodore Parker attacks historical
Christianity in his sermon "A Discourse of the
Transient and Permanent in Christianity"
1842 - (January 27) - son
Waldo dies
lectures in New York, meets Henry
James
- assumes editorship of The Dial
(July)
- visits Shaker community with Nathanial
Hawthrone (September)
- William Ellery Channing
dies
1843 - delivers lecture
series "New England" in Baltimore, New York,
Philadelphia, Newark
- Bronson Alcott and
friends establish Fruitlands
- Nathaniel
Hawthorne reveals attitude toward Transcendentalism in
his allegory "The Celestial Railroad"
1844 - Emerson's "Essays:
Second Series" published (October 19) . Sells
well.
- (July 10) - son Edward born
-
delivers address "Emancipation in the British West
Indies", first public statement against slavery
1845 - Close friend
Margaret Fuller publishes Woman in the Nineteenth
Century.
- Henry David Thoreau moves into
self-built cabin on Walden Pond (on Emerson's
property) for 2 years and 2 months, in order to "live
deliberately."
1845-46 - Lecture series
"Representative Men" (December - January)
1846 - Poems published
(December 25)
1847-48 - second trip to
England and France, British lecture tour. Visits
Carlyle, Martineau, Wordsworth
1849 - "Nature; Addresses
and Lectures published again (September)
1850 - "Representative
Men" published
- first western (Cleveland &
Cincinati) lecture tour (May - June)
- (July 19)
- Margaret Fuller Ossoli drowns at sea off Long
Island, New York on her return from Italy
1851 - speaks on the
Fugitive Slave Law (May)
- Melville publishes
Moby Dick
1852 - speaks on the
Fugitive Slave Law (May)
- edits memoirs of
Margaret Fuller Ossoli
- western lecture tour
(December - January 1853)
- Hawthorne publishes
The Blithedale Romance based in part on Brook Farm
1853 - (November 16) -
mother, Ruth Haskins Emerson, dies at 85, at Emerson's
home
1854 - lectures on poetry
at Harvard Divinity School (April)
- meets Walt
Whitman in New York City (December)
- Walden by
Thoreau is published. He also publishes Life Without
Principle, a definition of his transcendental
criticism of materialism.
1855 - Whitman publishes
Leaves of Grass Emerson believes Whitman to be a true
American genius yet suggests to Whitman that some
overtly sexual passages be omitted. Whitman declines.
1856 - "English Traits"
published
1859 - (May 27) - brother
Bulkeley dies
1860 - "The Conduct of
Life" published
1861 - mobbed at Tremont
Temple by pro-slavery agitators
1862 - meets Abraham
Lincoln (February)
- (May 6) - Henry David
Thoreau dies. Emerson gives funeral oration.
1863 - hails Lincoln's
"Emancipation Proclamation" with "Boston Hymn"
(January)
- (October 3) - aunt Mary Moody
Emerson dies
1865 - daughter Edith
marries William Hathaway Forbes
1866 - given honorary
doctorate at Harvard College
1867 - "May-Day and Other
Pieces" published
- elected Harvard "Overseer"
1868 - (September 13) -
brother William dies
1870 - "Society and
Solitude" published (March)
- launches lecture
series "The Natural History of the Intellect"
-
Emerson's memory noticeably begins to fail
1871 - trip to California,
meets with famed naturalist John Muir who is enchanted
with RWE. (April - May)
- gives second Harvard
lecture series
1872 - (July 24) Emerson's
house (Bush) burns
1872-73 - third trip to
Europe (October - May), including England (farewell
visit to Carlyle) and Egypt...while house is
repaired
- the town celebrates his return much
to Emerson's surprise
1874 - "Parnassus"
published
- son Edward marries Annie Keyes
1875 - "Letters and Social
Aims" published
- discontinues regular journal
entries
1876 - lectures at
University of Viirginia
1881 - reads paper at
Massachusetts Historical Society on the death of
Carlyle (February)
1882 - Emerson dies in
Concord on April 27, at age 78 and is buried in Sleepy
Hollow.
1883-86 - Emerson-Carlyle
correspondence published
1884 - "Lectures and
Biographical Sketches" published. "Miscellanies"
published.
1892 - (November 13)
Lidian Emerson dies at age 90
1893 - "Natural History of
the Intellect" and "Other Papers" published
1909-1910 - "Journals'
edited by son Edward Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes,
published in ten volumes.
(Sources: Emerson: The Mind on Fire by Richardson, Ralph Waldo Emerson: Days of Encounter by McAleer, and others volumes.)
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