Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson ( born May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts, † April 27, 1882 in Concord, Massachusetts) was an American philosopher, writer and leader of the transcendentalists in New England.

Life

Childhood

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born as the son of William Emerson (1769-1811) and Ruth Haskins ( 1768-1853 ). He was the third of eight children. Emerson's father was a Unitarian minister and died when Emerson was eight years old. After the death of the father 's intellectual formation was responsible for his aunt Mary Moody Emerson Emerson.

Training as pastor and first marriage

From 1817 he studied at Harvard, graduated in 1825 and got his license in 1826, which allowed him to work as a Unitarian pastor. Three years later he was appointed as an assistant to Henry Ware at the Second Unitarian Church of Boston.

On September 30, 1829, he married Ellen Louisa Tucker, who died on February 8, 1831 at the age of 19 years. In 1832 he resigned his ministry and turned away from the traditional theology.

Europe trip and second marriage

After the death of his wife, he went on a trip to Europe, where he made ​​1832-1833 acquaintance with Thomas Carlyle, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. On this journey, Emerson also learned German idealism and Indian philosophies know what should leave traces in his work later.

After his return in 1835 he married Lydia Jackson ( 1802-1892 ) and moved to Concord in Massachusetts with her. They had four children together: Waldo Emerson (1836-1842), Ellen Tucker Emerson (1839-1909), Edith Emerson (1841-1929) and Edward Waldo Emerson ( 1844-1930 ).

Work as a writer

His first book, Nature, he published in 1836 at the age of 33 years. In this collection of essays he represented his confession that people should live in a simple manner and in harmony with nature. In nature he saw the true source of divine revelation.

His lectures The American Scholar (1837 ) and Address at Divinity College ( 1838) led in 1838 to his suspension from Harvard University, which he earned recognition, however, among the students, some of whom joined the transcendentalists. Emerson was considered since then as a leading figure of this movement in America. Amos Bronson Alcott Along with Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, and Henry David Thoreau in 1840, he founded the magazine The Dial ( 1840-1844 ), which was intended as a "medium for new ideas and expressions that interest serious thinkers in every society ."

From 1850 his works began to be successful, including, for example, Conduct Of Life (1860 ) and Society And Solitude (1870 ). His flair for literary talents he proved when he Walt Whitman prophesied a great career, after he had sent him a copy of the 1855 Leaves of Grass. It was repeated to mentor young talent. He encouraged American intellectuals to escape the European influence, stressing the cultural independence of the American nation.

Farewell

After the fire of his house in 1872 Ralph Waldo Emerson began to withdraw more and more from the public. On April 27, 1882, he died in Concord, Massachusetts.

Works (selection)

• Nature (1836 ) First edition in German language: Nature ( essay). Edited and translated by Harald Kiczka, Novalis -Verlag, Schaffhausen, 1981 ISBN 3-7214-0077-1
• Nature: selected essays. Edited by Manfred Pütz. Introd, Translator and Note by Manfred bucket & Gottfried warrior, Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-023702-5 ( Loeb Classical Library, Volume 3702 ).

• German in Three speeches. About education, religion, and Henry David Thoreau, introduction by Dieter Schulz, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-938871-01-0

• In German: About the war. German by Sophie von Harbou, publishing peace - waiting, Berlin 1914

• Published in German under the titles of life, way of life and destiny.

• In German language: the diaries. Selected. by Bliss Perry. Transmit by Franz Riederer. With afterword by Eduard Baumgarten, Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1954

• German: Representatives of mankind, ISBN 3-85833-286-0 or ISBN 3-257-21696-3.

The numerous essays Emerson appeared in Germany in a very different compositions under various titles.