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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's feelings on returning to America?

2. Where did Emerson move, in advance of writing Nature?

3. What does Richardson say was the turning point in Emerson's life?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How was the period surrounding Emerson's marriage a time of mixed blessings?

3. How did Emerson support himself after Harvard?

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

5. What Quaker belief of Mary Rotch's did Emerson find compelling?

6. How was Emerson's "American Scholar" talk received?

7. How does Richardson describe Emerson as a child?

8. What is Emerson doing when Richardson introduces us to him?

9. How does Richardson characterize Lidian, Emerson's second wife?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What kind of writer was Ralph Waldo Emerson? Was he a poet, or a religious writer, or a writer of some other sort? Define your terms and make a case based on the text.

Essay Topic 2

Emerson's descendants are reputed to have moved away from New England, and to have taken up Catholicism. How do you think Emerson would have responded to this? How does his philosophy, how does his writing represent the continuity of culture from one generation to the next?

Essay Topic 3

What do you think the nature of Emerson's relationship with Margaret Fuller was? Were they romantically interested in each other, or were they platonic friends?

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