| Timeline |
| 1803 |
Born 25 May in Boston |
| 1811 |
Father, William Emerson, dies |
| 1812 |
Attends Boston Latin School until 1817 |
| 1821 |
Attends Harvard College until 1825 |
| 1822 |
First article published, in The Christian Disciple
|
| 1825 |
Admitted to Harvard Divinity School |
| 1827 |
Serves as "supply" preacher until 1829 |
| 1829 |
Marries Ellen Tucker on 10 September; is ordained as junior minister of Second Church in Boston |
| 1831 |
Wife Ellen dies of tuberculosis in February |
| 1832 |
Resigns from Second Church; travels to Italy, France, England and Scotland |
| 1833 |
"The Uses of Natural History", lecture at the Masonic Temple, Boston |
| 1833 |
Meets Coleridge and Wordsworth; embraces Transcendentalism
|
| 1834 |
Settles in Concord |
| 1835 |
"Biography" lectures from January to March; "English Literature" lectures from November thru January 1836 |
| 1835 |
Marries Lydia Jackson on 14 September |
| 1836 |
"Nature" published; helps form Transcendental Club; son Waldo is born |
| 1837 |
"The American Scholar" address at Harvard; "The Concord Hymn" written |
| 1838 |
"Divinity School Address" at Harvard; "Literary Ethics" lecture at Dartmouth |
| 1839 |
Daughter Ellen born; "The Present Age" lectures from December thru February, 1840 |
| 1841 |
"Essays" (First Series) - published; Thoreau moves in with Emerson; daughter Edith born |
| 1842 |
Son Waldo dies; lectures in New York and meets Henry James; assumes editorship of The Dial; visits Shaker community with Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| 1843 |
Lecture series "New England |
| 1844 |
"Essays: Second Series" published; son Edward born; "Emancipation in the British West Indies" address |
| 1845 |
Lecture series "Representative Men" from December thru January 1846 |
| 1846 |
Poems published |
| 1847 |
Travels again to England and France |
| 1849 |
"Nature; Addresses and Lectures" published |
| 1850 |
"Representative Men" published; lecture tour in western U.S. |
| 1852 |
Another western lecture tour from December thru January 1853 |
| 1854 |
Lectures on poetry at Harvard Divinity School; meets Walt Whitman |
| 1856 |
"English Traits" published
|
| 1860 |
"The Conduct of Life" published
|
| 1861 |
Physically attacked at Tremont Temple by pro-slavery agitators |
| 1862 |
Meets Abraham Lincoln |
| 1866 |
Awarded honorary doctorate at Harvard College |
| 1867 |
"May-Day and Other Pieces" published; elected Harvard "Overseer"
|
| 1870 |
"Society and Solitude" published; "The Natural History of the Intellect", lecture series |
| 1871 |
Travels to California, meets John Muir, famed naturalist; second Harvard lecture series |
| 1872 |
Emerson's home burns down |
| 1872 |
Third trip to Europe |
| 1874 |
"Parnassus" published |
| 1875 |
"Letters and Social Aims" published |
| 1876 |
Lectures at University of Virginia
|
| 1882 |
Dies in Concord on 27 April |
