Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson

Originally delivered in January 1842 as a lecture to an audience at the Masonic Temple in Boston, The Transcendentalist was first printed in The Dial, the literary magazine devoted to the transcendentalist movement. It was then included in Emerson's 1849 Nature; Addresses, and Lectures. In the essay, Emerson offers a definition of the transcendentalist, describing the follower of this philosophy of optimism and positive thinking as a rather passive, even bored individual, who feels misunderstood - and mistreated - by the general public.