Essay
The year 1836 was important for Emerson as a man of letters. In September, his Nature—a systematic exposition of his Transcendental philosophy—was published in Boston by James Munroe. While hardly a popular success, Nature was taken seriously by those who, like the author himself, sought new insights to replace theological dogma and received wisdom. With its publication, Emerson’s reputation as a thinker and Transcendentalism as a movement gained momentum. As Emerson’s reputation grew, Concord—already recognized for its historic role in the American Revolution—was transformed into a Mecca for intellectual and reform-minded pilgrims.
Nature was followed in quick succession by two other major expressions of Transcendentalism that consolidated Emerson’s position as a leader among proponents of the “newness.” His “American Scholar” address was delivered on August 31, 1837, before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard, and published soon afterward. Emerson read his “Divinity School Address” to the senior class of Harvard Divinity School on July 15, 1838. It was published a little over a month later.
Soon after the publication of Nature in 1836, a group gathered at George Ripley’s house in Boston at the urging of Frederic Henry Hedge, “for the free discussion of theological & moral subjects.” This first meeting of the informally structured “Hedge Club,” or “Transcendental Club,” included Ripley, Hedge, Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson, James Freeman Clarke, and Convers Francis. Later meetings were attended by Theodore Parker, Margaret Fuller, Ellery Channing, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Elizabeth Hoar, Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley, Henry Thoreau, and others. Meetings were held in the houses of participants, including Emerson’s home in Concord. The day after Emerson delivered his Phi Beta Kappa oration, for example, he acted as host to the club. (Anticipating the event, Lidian wrote in a letter to Elizabeth Peabody on August 22, 1837 that she was to be “honoured with the opportunity of ministering to the earthly comfort of the whole transcendental coterie.”) Meetings of the club provided opportunity for the exchange of ideas and led to the establishment of the Transcendental periodical The Dial.
Emerson met Bronson Alcott in the mid-1830s. In 1840, Alcott moved to Concord. In the late 1830s and the 1840s, Concord was home to others, too, who, to one degree or another, gravitated toward Emerson and contributed to the intellectual and social vitality of the town. Henry Thoreau, a native, returned to Concord after graduating from Harvard in 1837. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne and his bride rented the Manse between 1842 and 1845 and later bought their own home here. Poet Ellery Channing and his wife Ellen Fuller Channing—Margaret’s sister—moved here in 1843. George William Curtis, a former Brook Farm resident, came in 1844, his fellow Brook Farmer Minot Pratt in 1845.
In addition, in this early period of Emerson’s residence
in Concord, the house on the Cambridge Turnpike drew visitors from near
and far who came to meet and converse with Emerson. Evangelical preacher
Father Edward Taylor, English abolitionist Harriet Martineau, poet Jones
Very, and educational reformer Horace Mann were among the many to whom
Emerson extended hospitality.
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