1803 Born May 25 in Boston, Massachusetts, to the Reverend William and Ruth Haskins Emerson.
1811 Father dies May 12 of stomach cancer.
1812 Enters Boston Public Latin School; begins writing poetry.
1817 Enters Harvard College.
1821 Graduates from Harvard College in August; begins teaching at his brother William’s School for Young Ladies.
1824 Dedicates himself to religious study.
1825 Leaves the School for Young Ladies and enters Harvard Divinity School.
1826 Becomes licensed to preach; fearing tuberculosis, he travels to Charleston, South Carolina, and later to St. Augustine, Florida.
1829 Is ordained pastor of the Second Unitarian Church of Boston; marries Ellen Tucker in September,
1831 Nineteen-year-old Ellen dies February 8 of tuberculosis.
1832-33 Resigns from Second Church and travels in Europe; visits Carlyle, Mill, Coleridge, and Wordsworth.
1833-34 Lectures on “The Uses of Natural History.”
1835 Lectures on biography; meets Alcott and Fuller; marries Lydia Jackson.
1835-36 Lectures on “English Literature.”
1836 Anonymously publishes Nature; first meeting of Transcendental Club; birth of first child, Waldo, on October 30.
1836-37 Lectures on “Philosophy of History.”
1837 Delivers “The American Scholar” address before Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa Society.
1837-38 Lectures on “Human Culture.”
1838 Delivers a controversial address before the senior class of Harvard Divinity School.
1838-39 Lectures on “Human Life.”
1839 First daughter, Ellen, is born February 24.
1839-40 Lectures on “The Present Age.”
1840 The transcendentalist journal The Dial first published.
1841 Publishes Essays: First Series; daughter Edith is born November 22.
1841-42 Lectures on “The Times.”
1842 Son, Waldo, dies of scarlet fever; Emerson succeeds Margaret Fuller as editor of The Dial.
1844 Son, Edward Waldo, is born July 10; publishes Essays: Second Series.
1845-46 Lectures on “Representative Men.”
1846 Publishes Poems in December.
1847-48 Second trip to Europe; visits Carlyle and other important literary figures.
1849 Publishes Nature; Addresses, and Lectures in September.
1850 Publishes Representative Men in January.
1853 Eighty-four-year-old mother dies.
1856 Publishes English Traits in August.
1862 Lectures on “American Civilization” in Washington, D.C.; meets President Lincoln.
1866 Receives honorary doctorate from Harvard.
1867 Publishes May-Day and Other Pieces in April.
1870 Publishes Society and Solitude in March; lectures on “Natural History of Intellect.”
1872 Emerson’s home burns.
1872-73 Third trip abroad.
1875 Publishes Letters and Social Aims in December.
1876 Publishes Selected Poems.
1882 Dies of pneumonia on April 27 and is buried in Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
