Emerson and Thoreau: Companions on a Journey of Self-Discovery
In the early autumn of 1833, thirty-year-old Ralph Waldo Emerson was in Liverpool, England, about to return home to Massachusetts. He had traveled to Europe, in part, to assuage the pain from the death of his first wife, Ellen. Her death prompted him to resign the ministry, and reconsider the whole of his life.
Over the next two years—by 1835—Emerson had successfully launched a second career as an essayist and public speaker; published his seminal work, “Nature”; married his second wife, Lidian; and purchased his home in Concord, Massachusetts. He was on his way to becoming one of this country’s most notable, quotable and important thinkers. The literary movement in Concord at the time predominately centered around Emerson; he was at the epicenter of American thought.
Emerson’s choice to settle in Concord in the mid-1830s changed the life of a young student named Henry David Thoreau, who was fourteen years younger than Emerson.
Ralph Waldo Emerson & Henry David Thoreau
There were many similarities between Emerson and Thoreau, starting with a strong affinity for the town of Concord. Emerson’s connections to Concord went all the way back to the town’s founding in 1635, when his ancestor Peter Bulkeley was among the early English settlers. Emerson’s grandparents were living in the Old Manse when the Revolutionary War began at the North Bridge, within sight of their home. After he bought his house in 1835, Emerson lived in Concord for the rest of his life.
Thoreau was born in Concord and lived in the town for most of his life with his parents, brother and two sisters. He described Concord as “his Rome” and although he traveled widely in the Northeast, he had no desire to live elsewhere.
The two men were bound by a strong belief in the importance of nature in developing creative and independent thinking. To share this message with others, they both chose writing and lecturing for their careers.
A Lifelong Friendship
Emerson and Thoreau met in the spring of 1837. Most likely Lucy Jackson Brown—Emerson’s sister-in-law—brought Thoreau to Emerson’s home and shared snippets of Thoreau’s poems. The year before they met, Emerson had published his essay “Nature” and Thoreau had borrowed it from the library and read it twice.
Emerson started keeping a journal while at Harvard and in October of 1837 Thoreau started his own after Emerson asked him “do you keep a journal?” Their journals became an integral part of their writings.
Two sturdy oaks I mean, which side by side
Withstand the winter’s storm,
And, spite of wind and tide,
Grow up the meadow’s pride,
For both are strong.
Above they barely touch, but, undermined
Down to their deepest source,
Admiring you shall find
Their roots are interwined
Insep’arble(qtd in Cramer, 121)
In April 1841, Emerson invited Thoreau to “live with me & work with me in the garden & teach me to graft apples.” (Walls, 120). Thoreau had free run of Emerson’s library and time to study, roam, and write as he pleased.
In May 1841, Emerson wrote to Thomas Carlyle that in his dwelling lived “a poet you may one day be proud of: – a noble manly youth, full of melodies and inventions. We work together by day in my garden and I grow well and strong.” (Walls, 120)
Both men found walking calming and introspective, whether alone or in company. While walking, Thoreau’s eyes would be focused on the ground looking for twigs, arrowheads, and flowers. Emerson would often face skyward as noted in his lecture series, The Conduct of Life: Behavior, “Love the day. Do not leave the sky out of your landscape.”
Thoreau lived with the Emersons until March 1843, when he left to go to Staten Island to tutor William Emerson’s children. Missing Concord, he returned in December.
In April 1847, Thoreau moved back and stayed with the family until Emerson returned from a European lecture tour in July 1848. Thoreau acted as head of a household that included 8-year-old Ellen, 6-year-old Edith, 3-year-old Edward, Lidian, Lucy Jackson Brown and Emerson’s mother Ruth Haskins. Thoreau took care of the grounds and the kitchen garden and helped with financial decisions.
“The Country Knows Not Yet, or in the Least Part, How Great a Son it Has Lost”
Thoreau died on May 6, 1862 in Concord at only 44 years old. Bronson Alcott planned his funeral to be held at the First Parish Church. The service was modeled after the memorial Thoreau had designed for abolitionist John Brown. It was a public event, a town ceremony.
Emerson wrote and delivered the eulogy at Thoreau’s funeral on May 9, 1862. Emerson’s closing remarks reflected his great respect for his friend and companion on the journey of self-discovery.
The scale on which his studies proceeded was so large as to require longevity, and we were the less prepared for his sudden disappearance. The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it has lost. It seems an injury that he should leave in the midst his broken task, which none else can finish – a kind of indignity to so noble a soul, that it should depart out of Nature before yet he has been really shown to his peers for what he is. But he, at least, is content. His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a home.
(R. W. Emerson, August, 1862)
— R. Davis, B. Ewen, and M. Purrington, Emerson House guides
WORKS CITED:
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Thoreau.” The Atlantic Monthly, August 1862.
Cramer, Jeffrey S. Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2019.
Walls, Laura Dassow. Henry David Thoreau: A Life. The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
