LowellDeeds

Two Hundred and Nine years ago today, May 25 Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston Massachusetts.At the young age of 14 Emerson began his studies at Harvard University. At of thirty-one he moved to Concord, Mass leaving his mother's home in Newton.

In 1836 he met and became friends with Henry David Thoreau. Together they became major leaders of the Transcendental Movement, a philosophy that stressed self-reliance, individualism and a connection with Nature.

Often Emerson is given undeserved criticism when compared to Thoreau. Some label him a talker not a doer. This is unfair. Ralph Waldo Emerson was unquestionable a genius. No, he didn't send two years living in the woods, like Thoreau, but he lectured and wrote extensively. During the 1850's he gave as many as 80 lectures a year.

When Emerson died in 1882 he was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord in an area known as Author's Ridge. Renowned authors Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau are also buried on Author's Ridge.