Epigrams of Ralph Waldo Emerson, The

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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist and poet, a leader of the philosophical movement of transcendentalism. Influenced by such schools of thought as English romanticism, Neoplatonism, and Hindu philosophy. Emerson is noted for his skill in presenting his ideas eloquently and in poetic language. He was acquainted with such British literary notables as Walter Savage Landor, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Carlyle, and William Wordsworth. His meeting with Carlyle marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship.The first volume of Emerson's Essays (1841) includes some of his most popular works. It contains History, Self-Reliance, Compensation, Spiritual Laws, Love, Friendship, Prudence, Heroism, The Over-Soul, Circles, Intellect, and Art. The second series of Essays (1844) includes The Poet, Manners, and Character. In it Emerson tempered the optimism of the first volume of essays, placing less emphasis on the self and acknowledging the limitations of real life. In 1846 his first volume of Poems was published (dated, however, 1847).His later works include Society and Solitude (1870), which contained material he had been using on lecture tours; Parnassus (1874), a collection of poems; Letters and Social Aims (1876); and Natural History of Intellect (1893).