In the fall of 1833 he sailed for Europe, going by way of the
Mediterranean. Returning by way of England, he met Coleridge, Wordsworth,
and Carlyle, whose influence he had already felt. His visit to Carlyle led
to a lifelong friendship. Emerson helped to bring out an American edition
of the _Sartor Resartus_ (1836) before it was published in England.
[Illustration: EMERSON'S STUDY]
After returning from Europe, Emerson permanently settled at Concord,
Massachusetts, the most famous literary town of its size in the United
States. The appreciation of the Concord people for their home is shown by
the naive story, told by a member of Emerson's family, of a fellow townsman
who read of the rapidly rising price of building lots in Chicago, and
remarked, "Can't hardly believe that any lands can be worth so much money,
so far off." After Henry D. Thoreau (p. 194) had received a medal at school
for proficiency in geography, he went home and asked his mother if Boston
was located in Concord. It was to Concord that Emerson brought his second
wife, Lidian Jackson Emerson, whom he married in 1835. In Concord he wrote
his most famous _Essays_, and from there he set out on his various
lecturing tours.
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