Elijah Austin
RALPH WALDO
EMERSON
Elijah Austin
English
4-03–17
Ralph Waldo Emerson Biography
Everyone has that influential person in their life. For most people it’s a parent or
grandparent, it could also be a sibling or even just a really good friend. Ralph Waldo Emerson
was kind of that person for early American transcendentalist literature, becoming a mentor for
both Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau. Emerson published his first book in 1836 and he
was on an uphill climb from there. Eventually he would become one of the most popular
optimistic transcendentalist writers in American history.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents
Ruth Haskins and William Emerson were from a long line of New England ministers and
