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Let’s start with a definition: A literary and philosophical movement that extends the good and positive feelings of the Romantics to a higher level of personal and spiritual understanding. In other words, these thinkers of the early and mid-1800’s take Romanticism a step further. 2

Transcendentalism goes beyond (or transcends) a need for scientific proof or religious tradition to achieve spiritual and personal satisfaction. They instead insist that one trusts his/her own individual thoughts and intuitions, that one, “follows the beat of his own drummer.” 3

Most were from New England. Most were well-educated, many from Harvard. Most belonged to the Unitarian Faith, a less strict religious practice than the Calvinists of the Puritan era. Most were abolitionists and some even advocated women’s rights, including suffrage. Most distrusted many of the modern advances of the on-coming Industrial Age. Most believed society could be improved or even perfected by trusting in one’s inner perceptions and by living a simpler life. 4

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882 Emerson is seen as the leader of the Transcendental Movement. His views are set out in his essay, “Nature,” published in 1836. On July 15, 1838, Emerson delivered an address at the Harvard Divinity School in nearby Cambridge where he explained the movement’s principle ideas: “But when the mind opens, and reveals the laws which traverse the universe…then shrinks the great world at once into a mere illustration and fable of this mind. What am I? and What is? asks the human spirit with a curiosity new-kindled, but never to be quenched.” 5

Now, he faced a real career Emerson’s basic philosophical faith is that the ultimate source of truth is within ourselves. Self-reliance was more than merely an idea for Emerson. After he delivered his speech at Cambridge, he knew Harvard would no longer welcome him, so he resigned. Now, he faced a real career challenge. Emerson took his ideas to the public in lectures and speeches, assembled a number of devoted writers around him, and published a numerous essays and poems that became America’s single, original philosophical movement—Transcendentalism. 6

Margaret Fuller 1810-1850 Known as America’s first Feminist, Margaret Fuller was chosen by Emerson to edit the movement’s official magazine, “The Dial.” A poet and essayist, Fuller began editing for the New York Tribune, but left to become the most important critic of the Transcendental Movement. In 1843, The Dial published her essay The Great Lawsuit. Man versus Men, Woman versus Women in which she called for women's equality. 7

“The Dial” was published quarterly, and included poems, essays, and speeches by the most influential writers of the time. Though edited by Fuller, it was financed by the friend to all Transcendental thinkers, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was published from 1840 to 1844. 8

Henry David Thoreau 1817-1864 Thoreau was Harvard educated and gifted with literary talent, but he never held a steady job, and he never amassed great fortune. In fact, except for a few poems published in “The Dial,” he never achieved any fame beyond the small township of Concord… 9

…until he traveled twelve miles out of town, built a one-room cabin on Walden Pond, and lived there alone for one year. Thoreau took the principles of Transcendentalism and tested them. He examine his own life in response to the natural world around him and found what he called, “the essential facts of life.” 10

With the essays “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau helped establish a national concern for the nation’s natural resources and helped to define how individual citizens are to relate to their government. 11

Several writers of this period presented an examination of the darker elements of mankind. These writers would open the door to the more Gothic investigations of individual thought. These writings show that humans are capable of looking individually into that dark abyss and to find a deeper sense of themselves. 12

Herman Melville 1819-1893 Melville’s fictional novel, Moby Dick, tells the story of one whaler’s struggle against an evil of the deep. 13

EmilyDickinson 1830-1856 Never seeking fame for her poetry, Emily Dickinson scribbled verses from within her isolated bedroom overlooking the neighborhood cemetery of Amherst, Massachusetts. Dickinson’s seemingly simple verses open the mind to its darkest most regions. Her poems, wrought in the most tender poetic forms of Romanticism , cross over (or transcend) to the darkest regions of the soul. Though her poetry was not seriously accepted until long after the close of the Transcendental Period, we now see the movement’s influence upon her poetic creations. 14

No one looked deeper into the Gothic elements of life than Poe. Edgar Allen Poe 1809-1849 No one looked deeper into the Gothic elements of life than Poe. 15