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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What was Emerson's relationship with his reading?
(a) He tried to inhabit each author's mind.
(b) He tried to remain independent of what he read.
(c) He tried to claim the experiences contained in each book.
(d) He tried to lose himself in his reading.

3. What was the Transcendental Club founded to discuss?
(a) The nature of God.
(b) The future of America.
(c) The possibility of transcendence.
(d) The state of intellect in the U.S.

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

5. What stance did Emerson take on American literature?
(a) He celebrated it.
(b) He said that it needed to learn its history from British literature.
(c) He treated it as a narrow branch of British literature.
(d) He said that it began with him.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What career paths was Emerson torn between?

3. What was Emerson's first printed work?

4. On whom did Emerson's reading focus after he graduated from Harvard?

5. How did travel in Italy affect Emerson?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Emerson's relationship with tuberculosis?

2. How did travel change Emerson's intellectual interests?

3. How did the birth of Emerson's first son change Emerson's intellectual interests?

4. What was Emerson's relationship with Carlyle?

5. How close was the Emerson family after Emerson's return from Europe?

6. How did Emerson describe Ellen's death?

7. What view of Jakob Boehme's did Emerson pick up?

8. What was the 'immovable anchor' in Emerson's thinking, according to Richardson?

9. What was Emerson's view of American literature?

10. What was Emerson's relationship with Bronson Alcott?

(see the answer keys)

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