Biography
The central figure in a group of nineteenth-century Boston
thinkers known as the Transcendentalists, Emerson was the
son of a Unitarian minister who died when Emerson was eight
years old. His mother ran boardinghouses to put her sons
through school: Emerson graduated from Harvard in 1821, and
then, after studying theology, he was ordained a pastor in
1829. Though he enjoyed delivering sermons, Emerson's faith
in Christianity began to waver as he came under the influence
of German philosophers and the British Romantic poet Samuel
Taylor Coleridge; after he lost belief in the rites of the
Last Supper, he resigned from his church in 1831. His wife,
Ellen Tucker, died tragically young from tuberculosis, leaving
Emerson a legacy that allowed him to spend the rest of his
life traveling, lecturing, and writing. Nature (1836),
a major contribution to American Romanticism and Transcendentalism,
appeared anonymously and was favorably received among his
friends. Not until the publication of Essays (1841)
was Emerson confirmed as a dominant presence in American
letters. To this day, his influence on American writers,
from Dreiser to Frost to Stevens to Ammons and
on, is undeniable.
Explorations
Originally an address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at
Harvard in 1837, The American Scholar was a radical
document in its time, a blow against an educational system
that favored rote learning, declamation, and a prescribed
curriculum for all undergraduates. Later in the century,
an American educational revolution brought concentration
choices and elective courses to our college and universities.
This reform was inspired in great part by Emerson's pronouncements
about scholarship, about the idea of an education, and about
the nature of thinking itself. If Emerson's Nature bewilders
you with its abstractions and bold connections, The American
Scholar can help, as in this essay we see Emerson's views
applied to a specific social institution, the American college.
1. Consider first Emerson's idea of a paragraph. Turn
to The American Scholar and read the short paragraph
that begins "In this distribution of function, the scholar
is the delegated intellect" and the two paragraphs immediately
following. Recall the exercise of looking for a "topic
sentence" or a "thesis statement" in a well-constructed
paragraph. What would you say is the topic sentence in
each of these three by Emerson? Do these paragraphs develop
according to conventions you learned in writing courses?
What sorts of evidence do they muster to develop key ideas?
How would you describe the way that Emerson seeks to convince
you?
2. Look through The American Scholar and choose
four sentences which, if taken out of context, could strike
a reader as outlandish. How can we explain their inclusion
in this essay? What is their effect? When Emerson declares
that books "are for nothing but to inspire," does he mean
precisely that? How are we to respond? Is a sentence like
this to be taken at face value? Is it intended as an insurrection
against another way of reading books?
3. When Emerson delivered this address, the systematic
study of the natural, physical, and social sciences was
only beginning at British and American universities. Engineering,
psychology, organic chemistry, economics--these were virtually
unknown as subjects for formal study on campuses. Do modern
college curricula reflect Emerson's thinking in significant
ways? Has Emerson been left behind by the educational revolution
which he helped to begin? Which principles voiced in The
American Scholar figure in your thinking about this
question?
Other sites to consult:
Ralph
Waldo Emerson. A major site -- virtually
everything you ever wanted to know about Emerson.
Includes biographic material; images; online texts
by Emerson (fully searchable); criticism by Emerson
scholars; contextual materials on topics in Emerson's
work and that of his associates; and more. (Site
maintained by Jone Johnson.)
I
Hear America Singing: Ralph Waldo Emerson.
This PBS site includes an overview of Emerson and
his role in the Transcendentalist movement; images;
links to contextual materials; and excerpts from
selected works.
Emerson's
letter to Walt Whitman extolling Whitman's poetry.
See the letter the Library of Congress calls "probably
the most important letter in American literary history."
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