Letters, poems, and fragments of a journal are the only first-hand reflection we have of a personality of major importance in the life of Ralph Waldo Emerson, that of the beautiful and gifted Ellen Louisa Tucker, whom he married in 1829. Blithe, humorous, full of charm and candor, the engaging seventeen-year-old had captured wholly the heart of the serious young minister. The depth and transforming effect on him of their happy love is a universally acknowledged biographical fact, as is the tragic, shattering effect of her early death in 1831. Emerson's letters to Ellen Tucker have been destroyed, but several of his poems to her--two of them hitherto unpublished--are included with her letters in this volume. This romantic chronicle of two intelligent, active young people takes on a poignant significance as a monument to a love that affected Emerson profoundly during the years of his most critical personal decisions. The letters are owned by the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association. They are edited and presented here by Emerson's great-granddaughter, a trustee of the Association, as the most direct commemoration possible of a vital experience, intimate and central to the Emerson story.

Ellen Tucker Emerson (1839-1909) was the eldest surviving child of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Lidian Jackson Emerson (1802-1892). This collection contains one hundred letters all written by Ellen Tucker Emerson to family and friends. The majority of the letters (45) were written to her sister Edith (1841-1928), who spent twelve months in New York undergoing the water-cure. Eleven letters were written to her brother Edward (1844-1930), who was often away at Harvard College, twelve to her cousin John Haven Emerson (1840- ), and seven to her father. The remainder were to friends and other relatives. Most of the letters were written from Concord, Massachusetts, and in lively prose detail Ellen's life in the Emerson household and in the wider Concord community. The family was firmly based in Concord from which town Ralph Waldo Emerson traveled widely lecturing and Ellen made occasional visits to friends and relatives in Boston, Canton, Naushon, and Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island. Ellen writes of: her visits to "Aunt Ripley" [Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley (1793-1867)] at the Manse where Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Sanborn are boarding for part of 1864; her Dante studies with "Aunt Lizzie" [Elizabeth Hoar (1814-1878)]; and her labors with Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (1809-1871), Una Hawthorne (1844-1877), and Julian Hawthorne (1846-1934) in behalf of "Mrs. Mann's fair". She describes skating on Walden Pond [14 January 1863], visiting Edward's newly decorated room at Harvard [6 January 1863], attending Anna Ward's wedding at the Catholic Chapel [30 January 1863], listening to Mr. Alcott and her mother discuss education [8 January 1864], and monitoring the behavior of her "daughter", Edith Davidson, her ward for several years.

This collection contains one hundred letters all written by Ellen Tucker Emerson to family and friends. The majority of the letters (45) were written to her sister Edith (1841-1928), who spent twelve months in New York undergoing the water-cure. Eleven letters were written to her brother Edward (1844-1930), who was often away at Harvard College, twelve to her cousin John Haven Emerson (1840- ), and seven to her father. The remainder were to friends and other relatives.

Letters, poems, and fragments of a journal are the only first-hand reflection we have of a personality of major importance in the life of Emerson, that of the beautiful and gifted Ellen Louisa Tucker, whom he married in 1829. The depth and transforming effect on him of their happy love is a universally acknowledged biographical fact, as is the tragic, shattering effect of her early death in 1831.