Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first, then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays - Essays: First Series and Essay. Second Series, published respectively in 1841 and 1844 - represent the core of his thinking, and include such well-known essays as Self-Reliance, The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet and Experience. Together with Nature, these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson's most fertile period.
爱默生是美国十九世纪杰出的思想家、散文家、诗人、演说家。作为超验主义文学运动的领袖,爱默生钟爱自然,崇尚自我与精神价值,鄙弃拜金主义。他的学说被誉为“美国最重要的世俗宗教”,对诸如梭罗、惠特曼、霍桑、亨利·米勒以及尼采、柏格森等人具有相当的影响。