The year 1836 was one of the most eventful in Emerson's life. His younger brother Charles, a lawyer, had become engaged in 1835 to Elizabeth Hoar, daughter of well-known Concord lawyer Samuel Hoar and sister of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, George Frisbie Hoar, and Edward Sherman Hoar. Intelligent, learned, and widely respected, Elizabeth Hoar was always welcome in the Emerson home. In May of 1836, Charles Emerson died of tuberculosis — a severe blow to his fiancée and to the Emersons. Emerson was restored in October, when Lidian gave birth to their first child, Waldo. In the same year, he met Transcendental thinkers Margaret Fuller and Bronson Alcott. Alcott, who later became a neighbor, was a friend until Emerson's death in 1882. In 1836, Emerson also wrote the preface to an American edition of Carlyle's Sartor Resartus. Moreover, Emerson's own Nature was published by James Munroe in September of the year. While hardly a popular success, Nature was taken seriously by those who, like the author himself, sought new insights to replace dogma, convention, and received wisdom. With the publication of Nature, both Emerson's reputation as a thinker and Transcendentalism as a movement gained momentum. Shortly after Nature appeared, a group gathered at George Ripley's home in Boston at the urging of Frederic Henry Hedge, "for the free discussion of theological & moral subjects." The first meeting of the informal "Transcendental Club" included Ripley, Hedge, Emerson, Alcott, Orestes Brownson, James Freeman Clarke, and Convers Francis. Later meetings included Theodore Parker, Margaret Fuller, Ellery Channing, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Thoreau, and others. The club met until 1840, providing opportunity for the exchange of ideas and leading to the establishment of The Dial.
The Dial, named by Bronson Alcott, was issued between July of 1840 and April of 1844. Margaret Fuller was its first editor; Emerson took over from Fuller in 1842. He was a major contributor of poems, essays, and reviews to the magazine throughout its four-year run. Although The Dial did not circulate widely, it was nevertheless important as a stimulus to and medium for Transcendental thought. Aside from Fuller and Emerson, contributors included Bronson Alcott, Lydia Maria Child, James Russell Lowell, Theodore Parker, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Henry David Thoreau, and Jones Very.
