Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston MA, May 25, 1803 - Concord MA, April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of William Emerson, a Unitarian minister. After he himself also became Unitarian, he became more of a transcendentalist. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.