Mary Moody Emerson and the Origins of Transcendentalism

Mary Moody Emerson has long been a New England legend, the "eccentric" aunt of Ralph Waldo Emerson. This major study, based on the first reading of all her known letters and diaries, reveals a complex human voice and powerful forerunner of Transcendentalism. Diverting her ancestors' fervent religion into the celebration of solitude, nature and imagination, she explored a new ground as a female writer and crucially set the terms for her nephew's thought.