- Born
- 25 May 1803
- Died
- 27 April 1882
- Lived in
- Boston & Concord, Massachusetts, USA
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, trained as a minister, and became an essayist, poet, and public lecturer. From his home in Concord he helped make the town a centre of American Transcendentalism, encouraging writers including Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller.
A LESSER-KNOWN DETAILAfter a fire badly damaged his home in 1872, neighbours rescued most of his books and manuscripts. Emerson recorded the disaster in his journal with just two words: “House burned.”
