Part 1 of Essay
One of Americas most influential thinkers and authors was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston on May 25, 1803. Emerson's dad died when he was only eight, which forced his mom to take in boarders to support the family's needs. When Emerson was only 14, he entered Harvard, where he ran became a sort o ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... prominent European writers. A year later, he returned back to the United States, where he settled in Concord Massachusetts. At an oration at Harvard, he gave one of his most famous, if not his most famous speech, "The American Scholar." "The American Scholar," was a speech about being intellectually independent. Intellectually Independent simply means that everyone should think for themselves, and not become a "parrot of other mens thinking." This speech was very important in Emerson's life, because he was able ....