Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was one of the most influential literary figures and the leading voice of intellectual culture in nineteenth-century America. An essayist, philosopher, poet and founder of the Transcendentalist movement, his man now-iconic writings include Nature, The American Scholar, Self-Reliance, The Over-soul, Society and Solitude and Concord Hymn. Mentor to Whitman and Thoreau, Emerson continues to exert a powerful influence on Western thought and literature. Read More Read Less