Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson is the main character in this biography. He was born May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts to Reverend William and Ruth Emerson. Although poor, his family strongly believed in education and life-long learning. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the middle, silly, child in whom others saw the least promise. Waldo recalls much of his early life, including his stern father, the Reverend William Emerson. Waldo's mother, Ruth Haskins, is left to raise her children after the early death of her husband; much of Waldo's interest in religion came from his deeply religious mother.

He attended Harvard University as a teenager, graduating from college at eighteen. Emerson received a liberal, yet practical, education at Harvard, with much focus on religion. Waldo was described as only a fair scholar who was boyish, yet with a sense of self-possession. Being poor, Emerson helped to support himself through school by...