Ralph Waldo Emerson's speech at Harvard in 1837 challenged the rationalism of Harvard and its academicism, calling for Americans to develop their own voices and culture. This movement influenced other writers, including Henry David Thoreau, who lived alone in a cabin on Walden Pond and wrote the masterpiece 'Walden.' Nathaniel Hawthorne, influenced by Emerson, wrote 'The Scarlet Letter,' a rebuke of the optimism of his Concord allies. Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' was a metaphysical exploration, and Walt Whitman's poetry celebrated the common man and the open road, reflecting the spirit of the age of Andrew Jackson.
[... more]