World

Apr 30, 2023

We don't know about you, but we love traveling, road trips, and all things tourism. You don't even have to leave New England to see new and fascinating places, especially if you're a history fan.

For instance, yours truly found out that in Hartford, Connecticut, sits the home of the world-famous author known for classics like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His name was Samuel Clemens, though you may know him better by his pen name: Mark Twain.

But Clemens isn't the only author who called New England home, and whose property still stands as a testament to their life and works. There's another writer whose home remains open to the public: Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Known for his work as a poet, essayist, lecturer, philosopher, preacher, and more, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was born in Boston and lived the majority of his life in Massachusetts, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

This man did so much in his 78 years, that it's hard to sum it up in one article. According to the Ralph Waldo Emerson House website:

Perhaps America's best known thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson led a renaissance in American ideas in the 19th Century: a search to realize the high potential of the individual person, to understand the proper role of the individual in society, and to discover and celebrate the interrelation and sacredness of all life. He was a pragmatist and an idealist, a lecturer, a prolific writer and a poet.

Regarding the house itself, which stands at 28 Cambridge Turnpike in Concord, Massachusetts, the website explains that the property was purchased in 1835. Ralph and his wife Lidian lived there for 47 years, during which the home "became not only a place for Emerson's study and writing, but a literary center for the emerging American Transcendentalist movement." During this time, Ralph and Lidian simultaneously raised four children, and the former planted over 100 trees on the property.

Today, you can visit the Ralph Waldo Emerson house and learn more about this man and his remarkable accomplishments. 45-minute tours are typically offered Thursdays through Saturdays from 10am-4pm, and Sundays 1-4pm. Click here to learn more.