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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Richardson characterize the development of Emerson's writing in 1834?
(a) His lectures were discovering new territory.
(b) He was finding his voice.
(c) He was escaping from the voices to which he had always listened.
(d) His poetry was developing.

2. What career paths was Emerson torn between?
(a) Preaching and law.
(b) Farming and writing.
(c) Preaching and writing.
(d) Law and teaching.

3. What does Richardson say was the turning point in Emerson's life?
(a) His trip to Europe.
(b) His junior year in college.
(c) His wife's death.
(d) His trip to South Carolina.

4. What trouble did the Emerson family encounter around the time of Emerson's engagement?
(a) His mother fell ill.
(b) His brother had a mental breakdown.
(c) His brother died of tuberculosis.
(d) His father died.

5. What topic did Emerson lecture on after returning home from Europe?
(a) Literature.
(b) Biography.
(c) Science.
(d) Religion.

6. What 1837 event related to slavery does Richardson say affected Emerson's emotional state?
(a) The Missouri compromise.
(b) The murder of an abolitionist.
(c) The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law.
(d) The removal of the Cherokee.

7. What influence does Richardson say has helped Emerson's writing?
(a) His travels.
(b) His reading.
(c) His loss of Ellen Tucker.
(d) His public speaking.

8. How did Emerson describe his experience of Ellen's death?
(a) It was a second birth.
(b) It was a death for him as well.
(c) It was a turning point.
(d) It forced him to question his beliefs.

9. According to Richardson, what religious belief did Emerson turn toward while Ellen Tucker was dying?
(a) Paganism.
(b) Pantheism.
(c) Methodism.
(d) Calvinism.

10. What view was reaffirmed, for Emerson, in reading Jakob Boehme's "Aurora?"
(a) That experience is man's only freedom.
(b) That God is in one's own heart.
(c) That divine grace is real.
(d) That Freedom is limited by Fate.

11. The Mind on Fire is the story of what?
(a) Emerson's literary development.
(b) Emerson's family.
(c) Emerson's intellectual career.
(d) Emerson's marriage.

12. Who died in 1834?
(a) Emerson's mother.
(b) Emerson's brother Edward.
(c) Mary Moody Emerson.
(d) Emerson's brother Charles.

13. What does Richardson say was happening as Emerson and his brother Charles grew closer?
(a) Charles was expecting his first child.
(b) Charles was subscribing to Emerson's new confidence about religion.
(c) Charles' health was declining.
(d) Charles was leaving the church.

14. How was Emerson's 1837 speech at Harvard on the American Scholar received?
(a) With gifts.
(b) With celebration.
(c) With hostility.
(d) With relief.

15. Where does Richardson say Emerson's interest in religion came from?
(a) His father.
(b) Mary Moody Emerson.
(c) His brothers.
(d) His mother.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who influenced Emerson during this turning point?

2. What was Emerson reading of Bronson Alcott's, after settling down with Lidian?

3. How did Emerson's career change after he opened Ellen's casket?

4. In what way did Emerson share a faith with Mary Rotch and the Quakers?

5. How are we introduced to Emerson in the Prologue?

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