Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson “…was truly one of our great geniuses” even though he may have a short biography (Hodgins 212). But as Emerson once said himself, “Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.” Emerson was also a major leader of “the philosophical movement of Transcendentalism”. (Encarta 1) Transcendentalism was belief in a higher reality than that found everyday life that a human can achieve. Biographical Information Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father died when he was young and his mother was left with him and his four other siblings. At the age of 18 he graduated from Harvard University and was a teacher