Ralph Waldo Emerson certainly took his place in the history of 
American Literature . He lived in a time when romanticism was 
becoming a way of thinking and beginning to bloom in America, the 
time period known as The Romantic Age. Romantic thinking stressed on 
human imagination and emotion rather than on basic facts and reason. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson not only provided plenty of that, but he also 
nourished it and inspired many other writers of that time. "His 
influence can be found in the works of Henry David Thoreau, Herman 
Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, and Robert 
Frost.". No doubt, Ralph Waldo Emerson was an astute and intellectual 
man who influenced American Literature and has rightly received the 
credit that he deserves from historians. He has been depicted as a 
leading figure in American thought and literature, or at least ranks 
up there with the very best. But there is so much more to Ralph Waldo 
Emerson when we consider the personal hardships that he had to endure 
during the course of his life and when we see the type of man that he 
becomes. He certainly was a man of inspiration who knew how to 
express himself by writing the best of poems and philosophical ideas 
with inspiration.

     To get an idea of how Ralph Waldo Emerson might have become such 
an inspiration to the people, some background on his life is 
essential. Can you imagine living a life with all your loved ones 
passing away one by one? A persons life could collapse into severe 
depression, lose hope, and lose meaning. He can build a morbid 
outlook on life. Ralph Waldo Emerson suffered these things. He was 
born on May 25, 1803 and entered into a new world, a new nation just 
beginning. Just about eight years later, his father would no longer 
be with him, as William Emerson died in 1811. The Emerson family was 
left to a life marked by poverty. Ralph's mother, Ruth, was left as a 
widow having to take care of five sons. However, Ralph's life seemed 
to carry on smoothly. He would end up attending Harvard College and 
persue a job of teaching full time. While teaching as a junior pastor 
of Boston's Second Church, his life gained more meaning when he 
married Ellen Louisa Tucker. Journal entries and love letters he 
wrote at that time expressed lots of feelings and emotions that he 
had. But after two short years of marriage, Ellen died of 
tuberculosis. Suddenly, the one true person he had in his life was 
gone. Life was losing it's meaning, and Ralph Waldo Emerson was in 
need of some answers. This dark period drove him to question his 
beliefs. Emerson resigned from the Second Church and his profession 
as a pastor in search for vital truth and hope. But his father and 
wife were not the only deaths that he had to deal with. His strength 
and endurance would be put to the test much further with a perennial 
line of loved ones dying. His brother Edward, died in 1834, Charles 
in 1836, and his son Waldo (from his second wife Lydia Jackson) in 
1842. After such a traumatic life, you might expect that Emerson, 
like any other person,would collapse into severe depression, lose 
hope, and lose meaning to his life. But Emerson was different. He 
found the answers within himself and rebounded into a mature man.
     After surviving a mentally hard life, Ralph Waldo Emerson seemed 
to gain more discernment toward life. Wisdom is gained through 
experience. By 1835, Emerson's rare and extravagant spirit was ready 
to be unleashed. All his deep feelings, emotions, and thoughts 
fabricated truth the way he arrived at truth, within himself. "To 
believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in 
your private heart is true for all men- that is genius. Speak your 
latent conviction and it shall be the universal sense; for always the 
inmost becomes the outmost-and our first thought is rendered back to 
us by the trumpets of the last judgment." Emerson fully believed this 
and supported it by taking part in a new philosophical movement 
called Transcendentalism. In 1836, his first boot, Nature, was 
published. Nature expressed the main points of Transcendentalism. 
With this, Ralph Waldo Emerson started the Transcendental Club the 
same year. This club published a magazine called The Dial, fully 
promulgating philosophy, literature, and Emerson's truth fearlessly. 
He was starting to gain recognition. The young were opening their 
minds, and the old were impressed. Harvard was so impressed of him 
that ther asked him to give several addresses. In 1837, he gave a 
well-known address called "The American Scholar" in which he outlined 
his philosophy of humanism. A year later, he gave another address, 
called "The Divinity School Address." This argued about Christianity 
at that time for being too traditional and ritualistic in its ways. 
These methods didn't fill the people's spiritual need. Emerson showed 
his liking under a new religion founded by nature. Truly, by the 
crowds that he drew, Emerson refreshed the minds, of people who were 
thirsting for some truth. And who better to provide this than Emerson 
himself, who, through many distresses, searched within himself and 
became a man with life again.
     This man, of inspiration, full of truth, goodness, and beauty 
became a part of classic American literature. His expressions were 
absorbed into some of the most exceptional essays, poems, and 
philosophical ideas ever created. His famous essays 
are "History," "Art," "The Poet," and the famous "Self-Reliance." He 
gathered his essays into two volumes. The first was released in 1841, 
and the second was released in 1844. Poems however, also made 
Emerson's reputation as a erudite man. His poems were enjoyable as 
well as thought provoking to many. "Each and All," was a poem that 
supported his beliefs. "The Rhodora," as well as "The Humble Bee," 
and "The Snow Storm," touched on the greatness of nature. Emerson 
also expressed himself through poems such as "Uriel," "The 
Problem," "The Sphinx," and the well-known "Days." Many of these 
works of Emerson have taken there place in the history of American 
literature.
     Thus, we now see what truly a great man Emerson was. We gain a 
deep respect for him when we consider the hardships that he had to 
face, how he endured those problems, and the minds that he opened and 
touched by his wonderful works. In conclusion, we can truly say that 
Emerson is well deserving of the credit he received from historians.