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.
