RALPH WALDO EMERSON TIMELINE
1803----------> Born May 25, in Boston.
1821----------> Graduates from Harvard.
1826----------> Approbated as Unitarian minister.
1829----------> Accepts ordination as minister at Second Church, Boston on March 11. Marries Ellen Tucker on September 30.
1831----------> Death of Ellen on February 8.
1832----------> Resigns from Second Church in October, after refusing to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Leaves for European tour in December
1833-1834---> Travels in France, Italy, England. Meets Coleridge, Words worth and befriends Carlyle. Returns to Boston in October. Death of his brother Edward. Moves to Concord, where ancestors had lived.
1835----------> Begins career as secular lecturer. Marries Lydia (“Lidian”) Jackson on September 14.
1836----------> Death of his brother Charles on May 9. First book, Nature, published on September 9. First child, Waldo, born on October 30.
1837----------> National business and bank crisis in the spring. Oration at Harvard on August 31: “The American Scholar.”
1838----------> Oration at Harvard Divinity School on July 15: “The Divinity School Address.”
1839----------> Birth of daughter Ellen on February 24.
1840----------> Founding of The Dial.
1841----------> Essays, First Series published on March 20. Birth of daughter Edith on November 22.
1842----------> Death of son Waldo on January 27.
1843----------> Lecture tour to Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.
1844----------> Birth of son Edward on July 10. Essays, Second Series published on October 19.
1846----------> Publication of Poems on December 25.
1847-48------> Travels in France and England.
1850----------> Webster's Seventh of March speech. Publication of Representative Men.
1856----------> English Traits published on August 6.
1860----------> Publication of The Conduct of Life.
1862----------> Death of Thoreau.
1867----------> Publication of May-Day and Other Pieces.
1872----------> Burning of Emerson's house on July 24. Travels in Europe and Egypt from October 1872 until May 1873, but returns much diminished in mind.
1882----------> Emerson dies in Concord on April 27.