Ralph Waldo Emerson “To be great is to be misunderstood”

Important facts to remember about Emerson for the Final Exam: Although Emerson grew up in poverty, he entered Harvard at the age of fourteen and began recording his philosophies in a journal. During the 1830s and 1840s, Emerson and a small group of intellectuals would meet regularly to discuss philosophy, religion, and literature. The group became known as the Transcendental Club. The Transcendental Club developed a philosophical system that stressed intuition, individuality, and self-reliance. He wrote the essay “Nature” in 1836 which became the club’s unofficial statement or belief.