Known by his contemporaries as a brilliant essayist and dedicated preacher, David Atwood Wasson achieved prominence among second-generation Transcendentalists. A worthy protégé of Theodore Parker, Wasson was held in high esteem by his peers, as exhibited in a letter Parker wrote to Wasson on 30 June 1856 regarding a potential ministry: "I know you better than you think I do, and let me say there is no minister in New England from whom I expect so much." (These remarks were high praise indeed from a person of Parker's standing.) Wasson was noted for dissecting each thought with scientific precision and expressing his ideas with flawless organization. Wasson's literary contributions were augmented by his commentaries on and reviews of works by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, writings that offered Wasson's own refined view of standard Transcendental teachings.

Born into a devoutly Calvinist family in Brooksville, Maine...