Book Review

WeaknessesThe transcendentalist movement had a small membership and only lasted for a few years.The transcendentalism was never a systematic philosophy. It borrowed from many sources. The failure of transcendentalism as a moral force in American life was its denial of its real spiritual origin. It has exerted great impact in the country. New England Transcendentalism is important to American literature at least for two reasons: 1. It is represented by two major writers of the country---- Emerson and Thoreau. They became movers and shakers whose writings have had more and more impact with the passage of time. 2. A new group of writers under the influence of Emerson and Thoreau began to apply transcendental ideas in their works. Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) He was an American philosopher, lecturer, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society. Emerson formulated and expressed the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay, Nature. Following this ground-breaking work, he gave a speech entitled The American Scholar in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. considered to be America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence". Considered one of the great lecturers of the time.