He be gins his first lecture series, “Biography,” in Boston. Mark Twain is born.

1836Nature, Emerson’s first book, appears, and the Transcendental Club begins. Lydia gives birth to a son, Waldo. Emerson’s brother Charles dies of tuberculosis in New York City. Davy Crockett is killed at the Alamo.
1837Emerson delivers his speech “The American Scholar” at Har vard; Oliver Wendell Holmes calls it the declaration of inde pendence of American intellectual life. Emerson receives the second half of his inheritance from the estate of Ellen Emerson.
1838Emerson delivers “The Divinity School Address” at Harvard, for which the school bans him for what will be twenty-five years.
1839Lydia gives birth to the couple’s first daughter, Ellen Tucker Emerson. Emerson preaches his last sermon at Concord.
1840The first issue of the Dial appears, under the editorship of Margaret Fuller.
1841Emerson’s first series of Essays is published. Brook Farm, an experiment in communal living, is founded near Boston; Emerson declines membership. The Emersons’ second daugh ter, Edith, is born.
1842Waldo Emerson dies of scarlet fever. Emerson’s deep grief col ors his second series of essays, which he begins to write and compile. Emerson assumes editorship of the Dial. Charles Dickens’s American Notes appears.
1843Henry James is born.
1844Emerson’s Essays: Second Series is published. He gives the speech “Emancipation in the British West Indies” at the Con cord Court House. Emerson’s second son, Edward, is born. The Dial ceases publication because of low subscription rates.
1845Emerson purchases land at Walden Pond. Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven appears.
1846Poems, Emerson’s first collection of verse, appears. The United States declares war on Mexico.
1847Emerson takes his second trip to Europe; his lectures in En gland and Scotland are well attended.
1848Emerson returns to the United States. Advocates of women’s rights convene at Seneca Falls. Gold is discovered in California. The United States defeats Mexico, gaining control of most of the modern Southwest.
1849Emerson republishes Nature in the collection Nature, Addresses, and Lectures, which includes “The American Scholar” and “The Divinity School Address,” along with other early lectures.
1850Emerson’s Representative Men is published. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter appears. The second Fugitive Slave Law is enacted, making it illegal to assist escaped slaves. Margaret Fuller dies. When William Wordsworth dies, Alfred, Lord Tennyson succeeds him as poet laureate of England.
1851Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick, and James Fenimore Cooper dies.
1852Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin appears.
1853Emerson’s mother dies.
1854Walden: or Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau, is pub lished.
1855Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha and the first edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass appear.
1856Emerson’s English Traits is published.
1857Melville’s The Confidence-Man appears, with what some believe is anti-Emersonian sentiment.
1859Emerson’s brother Robert dies. Washington Irving dies.
1860The Conduct of Life is published.
1861The American Civil War begins.
1862U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. Henry David Thoreau dies.
1863Emerson’s aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, dies.
1864Nathaniel Hawthorne dies.
1865The Confederates surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Vir ginia, ending the American Civil War. Lincoln is assassinated.
1866Emerson recites to his son his poem Terminus, in which he rec ognizes his declining creative power. Harvard honors Emerson with the Doctor of Laws degree.
1867May-Day and Other Pieces, Emerson’s second and final collec tion of poems, appears. He lectures in nine western states.