Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...

 wrote several books of essays, commonly associated with transcendentalism

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...

 and romanticism

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

. "Essays" most commonly refers to his first two series of essays:

• Essays: First Series
  Essays: First Series
  Essays: First Series, is a series of essays written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published in 1844, concerning transcendentalism. Some of the most notable essays in the collection are Self-Reliance, Compensation, The Over-Soul, and Circles....
  
  
• Essays: Second Series
  Essays: Second Series
  Essays: Second Series is a series of essays written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1844, concerning transcendentalism. It is the second volume of Emerson's Essays, the first being Essays: First Series. The book included several notable essays by Emerson, including The Poet, Experience, and...
  
  

Some of the most notable essays of these two collections are Self-Reliance

Self-Reliance

Self-Reliance is an essay written by American Transcendentalist philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts...

, Compensation

Compensation (essay)

Compensation is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It appeared in his book Essays, first published 1841. In 1844, Essays: Second Series was published, and subsequent republishings of Essays were renamed Essays: First Series.-External links:...

, The Over-Soul

Over-soul

“The Oversoul” is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841. The broad subject of the essay, considered one of Emerson's best, is the human soul...

, Circles

Circles (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Circles is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841. The essay consists of a philosophical view of the vast array of circles one may find throughout nature. In the opening line of the essay Emerson states "The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and...

, The Poet

The Poet (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"The Poet" is an essay by U.S. writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, written between 1841 and 1843 and published in his Essays: Second Series in 1844. It is not about "men of poetical talents, or of industry and skill in meter, but of the true poet."-Overview:...

, Experience

Experience (Emerson)

"Experience" is the name of an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was published in the collection Essays: Second Series in 1844.The essay is preceded by a poem of the same title....

, and Politics

Politics (essay)

Politics is an essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is part of his Essays: Second Series, published in 1844. A premier philosopher, poet and leader of American transcendentalism, he used this essay to belie his feelings on government, specifically American government...

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Emerson later wrote several more books of essays including Representative Men, English Traits, The Conduct of Life

The Conduct of Life

The Conduct of Life is a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was published in 1860.-External links:**...

and Society and Solitude. Emerson's first published essay, Nature, was published in 1836, before the first and second series.