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Emerson, Thoreau, and Burroughs. 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. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Believed people were out of touch with nature
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Emerson, Thoreau, and Burroughs 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
Ralph Waldo Emerson • 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
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
Henry David Thoreau • 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
John Burroughs • 1837 – 1921 • Worked as a clerk and a federal bank examiner • Wrote both about nature and about literature • Critical of “nature fakers”
John Burroughs • 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
