In 1847, Emerson again traveled abroad, lecturing in England with success. He renewed his friendship with Carlyle, met other notable English authors, and collected materials for English Traits, which was eventually published in 1856. A collection called Addresses and Lectures appeared in 1849, and Representative Men was published in 1850.
Emerson's later works were never so highly esteemed as his writings previous to 1850. However, he continued to lead an active intellectual and social life. He made many lecture appearances in all parts of the country, and he continued writing and publishing. During the 1850s, he vigorously supported the antislavery movement. When the American Civil War broke out, he supported the Northern cause, but the war troubled him: He was deeply appalled by the amount of violence, bloodshed, and destruction it engendered,
In 1866, Emerson was reconciled with Harvard, and a year later the college invited him to give the Phi Beta Kappa address. May-Day and Other Pieces, published in 1867, was a second gathering of his poems, and his later essays were collected in Society and Solitude (1870).
As he grew older, Emerson's health and mental acuity began to decline rapidly. In 1872, after his Concord home was badly damaged by fire, his friend Russell Lowell and others raised $17,000 to repair the house and send him on vacation. However, the trauma added to his intellectual decline.
In 1879, Emerson joined Amos Bronson Alcott and others in establishing the Concord School of Philosophy. He often lamented that he had "no new ideas" in his later years. He also had to quit the lecture circuit as his memory began to lapse.
Emerson died of pneumonia on April 27, 1882, and, announcing his death, Concord's church bells rang 79 times.
