Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/466

 EMERSON

EMERSON

" Representative Men," and in London delivered before the Portman Square literary and seieutitic institution a special course on " The Mind and Manners of the Nineteenth Century." Hg also lectured in Scotland where the halls were ahvays crowded. At his lecture on Montaigne in London hLs hearers nuniU'red a thou-sand. During this visit he met personallj' all the principal men of letters in Englaml, visiting Carlyle at his home and l)eing also a guest of Wordsworth and of Harriet Martineau. On his return to America he lectured on the cliaracteristics of the English I)eople. In November, 1857, The Atlantic Monthly was estal)lished in Boston and Emerson contrib- uted to its columns, in all twenty-eight articles in prose and verse. At about the .same time a literary organization known as the Saturdaj' club was formed, of which Emerson was a member from the first, and which included Longfellow, Agassiz, Hawthorne, Motley, Dana, Lowell, Sumner, John A. Andrew and others. Though his books were still persistently condemned by many critics the circle of his admirers rapidly widened, and two days after the publication of "The Conduct of Life" (1860), twenty-five thousand copies were sold. At this time the subject of slavery was under warm discussion. From the outset of Emerson's career he had openly advocated its abolition and now on the eve of civil war lie ma-de vigorous use of his tongue and pen in that direction. In January, 1861, he took a prominent part in the annual meeting of the Mas.sachusetts anti -slavery society, and in Febru- ary. 1862, gave an anti-slavery lecture in the Smithsonian institution building in Washington, his .subject l)eing " American Civilization." President Lincoln and his cabinet were among the listeners, and on the following day Lincoln requested an introduction to the lecturer and they had a long conference on the subject of slavery. He continued to lecture frequently on abolition and other subjects throughout the war and always to large audiences. In 1866 he lec- tured on "Philo.sophy for the People," and in 1868, 1869 and 1870 he delivered a series of lec- tures at Harvard on " The Natural History of the Intellect." In July, 1872, a fire in his hou.se destroyed many valuable papers including his father's sermons. Tlirough the dampness and exposure incidental to this accident Mr. Emer.son contracted a severe cold and received a shock to his sy.stem from which he never quite recovered. His friends by unsolicited contribution raised a sum more than sufficient to rebuild his house which was fini.shed in May, 1873, Emerson mean- while making his home in the " Old Manse." In 1874 he received the nomination of the indepen- dent party among the students of Glasgow uni- versity for the office of Lord-Rector, and received

five hundred votes against seven hundred for Disraeli, who was elected. On April 19, 1875, the one hundredth anniversary of the Concord figlit was observed, and Daniel C. French's statue of the minute man was unveiled, Emerson deliv- ering the address. This was the last address he

ever wrote. In 1879 he lectured on " Memory " before the Concord school of philosophy, and in 1880 gave his one hundredth lecture before the Concord Lyceum on " New England Life and Letters." Though his mind remained clear he suffered greatly from loss of memory, from the time of the burning of his house. In 1878 he retired gradually into literary inactivity, writ- ing little or nothing, but reading occasional papers from old manuscripts up to the year before his death. He was an overseer of Har- vard college, 1867-79; a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences, a member of the American philosophical society and of the Massa- chusetts historical society. Harvard conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1866. His published books are: Essays, First Series (1841); Essays, Second Series (1844); Poems (1846); Bepresentative Men (1850); Memoir of Mar- garet Fuller Ossoli (with WiUiam Henry Chan- ning and James Freeman Clarke (1852); Engli.^'h Traits (1856); TJie Conduct of Life (1860); May Day and other Pieces (1867); Society and Solitude (1870); Parnassus (1874); Letters and Social Aims (1874); Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1884): and Miscellanies (1884). His name was placed in the Hall of Fame, New York university. October, 1900. See his life by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1885) and Emerson in Concord (1888) by liis son, Edward Waldo. He died in Concord, Mass., April 27, 1882.

EMERSON, William, clergyman, was born in Concord. Mass., May 6. 1769; son of the Rev. William and Phebe (Bliss), grand.son of Joseph and Mary (Moody), great-grandson of Edward and Rebecca (AValdo), great^ grandson of the Rev. Joseph and Elizabeth (Bulkeley), and great^ grandson of Thomas Emerson of Ipswich, Eng- land, who immigrated to America about 1635. His great^ grandmother, Elizabeth Bulkeley Emerson, was a daughter of the Rev. Edward