A hundred and forty years after his death, Ralph Waldo Emerson retains his role as the father of Transcendentalism, one of several thinkers and writers of his time who created a whole  new way of looking at the world. Despite the world being a very different place from Emerson’s day, his words still ring true and new readers continue to find inspiration and illumination in them.      But where did Emerson come from, and what was his background?   Read my short bio to find out more about America’s greatest philosopher-thinker.   Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1857   Emerson was born in 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts, and was one of five children. His father was a Unitarian minister. He died...

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