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

The transcendentalists believe in the inherent goodness of both people and nature. They further believe that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—corrupt the purity of the individual. They instead had faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent.

Emerson’s essays represent the core of his thinking. His most read essays are and Self-Reliance, The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet and Experience.

The collection:

•Nature
•The American Scholar
•The Conduct of Life
•English Traits

Essays - First Series
•History
•Self-Reliance
•Compensation
•Spiritual Laws
•Love
•Friendship
•Prudence
•Heroism
•The Over-Soul
•Circles
•Intellect
•Art

Essays - Second Series
•The Poet
•Experience
•Character
•Manners
•Gifts
•Nature
•Politics
•Nonimalist and Realist
•New England Reformers

Representative Men
•Plato; or, the Philosopher
•Plato; New Readings
•Swedenborg; or, the Mystic
•Montaigne; or, the Skeptic
•Shakspeare; or, the Poet
•Napoleon; or, the Man of the World
•Goethe; or, the Writer

Poems
•May-Day And Other Pieces
•Elements And Mottoes
•Quatrains And Translations