By Linda Tucker

 Ralph Waldo Emerson  1803 – 1882  Began career as a minister  Left the church and became a lecturer  Majority of his works were first lectures and were later written down

  Believed people were out of touch with nature  Suggested that humans and nature should have a reciprocal relationship  Viewed nature in a spiritual way  Believed that God flowed through all of nature Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Henry David Thoreau  1817 – 1862  Worked as a teacher and a land surveyor  Eventually worked at his family’s pencil factory  Observed and recorded nature constantly  Famous for his two years at Walden Pond

  Like Emerson, believed people needed to get closer to nature  Believed nature to have its own intrinsic value  Wrote about nature in an anthropomorphic way  Also sought God in nature, but did not write about it to the extent of Emerson Henry David Thoreau

 John Burroughs  1837 – 1921  Worked as a clerk and a federal bank examiner  Wrote both about nature and about literature  Critical of “nature fakers”

  Believed people needed to be closer to nature  Unlike Thoreau, tended to write only observations in his essays and saved philosophical discussion for separate works  Also unlike Emerson and Thoreau, did not believe God was in nature  Instead, wrote that God was within us and going into nature allows us to better communicate with God John Burroughs

 Questions?