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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Richardson describe Emerson as a young boy?
(a) Talented and ambitious.
(b) Silly and unpromising.
(c) Full of doubts.
(d) Self-critical and motivated.

2. How long did Ellen Tucker and Emerson know each other before they were engaged?
(a) Less than a year.
(b) Two years.
(c) Three years.
(d) Five years.

3. What did Emerson do when he returned from the South?
(a) Looked for a wife.
(b) Preached itinerantly.
(c) Taught at Harvard.
(d) Prepared to travel further abroad.

4. Who died in 1834?
(a) Emerson's mother.
(b) Mary Moody Emerson.
(c) Emerson's brother Edward.
(d) Emerson's brother Charles.

5. On whom did Emerson's reading focus after he graduated from Harvard?
(a) German Transcendentalists.
(b) Platonic philosophers.
(c) Scottish Common Sense philosophers.
(d) Romantic poets.

6. The Mind on Fire is the story of what?
(a) Emerson's intellectual career.
(b) Emerson's family.
(c) Emerson's marriage.
(d) Emerson's literary development.

7. Who was Emerson reading at the time he fell in love with Lydia Jackson?
(a) Goethe.
(b) Fuller.
(c) Hume.
(d) Hegel.

8. What 1837 event related to slavery does Richardson say affected Emerson's emotional state?
(a) The removal of the Cherokee.
(b) The murder of an abolitionist.
(c) The Missouri compromise.
(d) The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law.

9. Who does Richardson credit with the birth of American Transcendentalism?
(a) Jones Very.
(b) Frederic Hedge.
(c) Emerson.
(d) Bronson Alcott.

10. What was the title of Emerson's first sermon?
(a) "Self-Reliance."
(b) "Pray without Ceasing."
(c) "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
(d) "The Wreck of All Earthly Good."

11. What was Emerson's first son's name?
(a) Charles.
(b) Waldo.
(c) Henry.
(d) Edward.

12. What does Richardson say Emerson felt after the birth of his son?
(a) Vulnerable.
(b) Proud.
(c) Anxious.
(d) Immortal.

13. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's feelings on returning to America?
(a) Impatient to begin new work.
(b) Depressed about coming home.
(c) Anxious about finding his family well.
(d) Despairing about finding a career.

14. How did the event described in the Prologue change Emerson's life?
(a) He gave up his independence and settled down.
(b) He secluded himself to write his first work.
(c) His religious beliefs took him away from the church.
(d) He retreated into solitude.

15. In what movement does Richardson say was Lidian ahead of Emerson?
(a) Opposition to the Indian Removal.
(b) Advocating the independence of American thought.
(c) Women's suffrage.
(d) Abolition.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the title of the lecture series Emerson delivered in 1837?

2. In what author did Emerson find guidance during Ellen Tucker's death?

3. Where did Emerson travel from South Carolina?

4. What does Richardson say was revealed by the publication of Nature?

5. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's exterior personality?

(see the answer keys)

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