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Birth
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May 25, 1803
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Death
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April 27, 1882
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Place of Birth
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Boston, Massachusetts
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Known as
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A leader of the American literary movement of transcendentalism, which rejected the conventions of formal religion and argued that one can achieve spirituality through intuition and connection with nature
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Milestones
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1821 Graduated from Harvard University
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1829 Was ordained as a Unitarian minister, but left the church in 1832 due to philosophical differences with the religion
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1832-1833 In Europe, met British writers Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle, and began a lifelong correspondence with the latter
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1834 Moved to Concord, Massachusetts, and over the next few years developed a circle of literary friends, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller
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1836 Anonymously published his first book, Nature, a long philosophical essay that established his transcendentalist views
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1837 Gave his 'American Scholar' lecture to Harvard students
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1838 Delivered the 'Address at Divinity College'
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1841 Published his first series of Essays, which included 'Self-Reliance,' 'Prudence,' and 'Friendship'
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1842-1844 Edited The Dial, a transcendentalist journal
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1844 Published his second series of Essays |
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1846 Published Poems |
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1860 Published a volume of lectures titled The Conduct of Life |
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Quote
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'Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.' Essays, 'Self-Reliance' (1841)
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Did You Know
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At 14, Emerson was the youngest member of his freshman class at Harvard.
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Emerson was known among his circle of friends as the Sage of Concord.
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Emerson advocated women's rights and the abolition of slavery.
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Emerson's memory deteriorated during the last ten years of his life; though he attended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's funeral in 1882, he could not remember the poet's name.
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