The American Scholar

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-nineteenth century. Although he began his career as a Unitarian minister, he gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism instead. Seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, he disseminated his thoughts through published essays and public lectures across the United States.

Phil Paonessa is a U.S. Army Veteran of the Vietnam era who works as an automotive-industry project engineer, a public speaker, an actor, a voice actor, and, formerly, a local-newspaper feature writer. The father of three adult children, he is a lifelong resident of Michigan, where he currently resides with his wife.