ESSAY Emerson’s Manifesto, Thoreau’s Nature MITCHELL SANTINE GOULD Mitchell Santine Gould, a gay historian with a spcial interest in Whitman and Quakerism, lives on the coast of Oregon. mens, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth. Does this sound harsh to-day? You will soon love what is dictated by your nature as well as mine, and, if we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. Hiding in plain sight since 1841, this mandate to be true to oneself may speak forcefully to contemporary LGBT people who have had the experience of coming out as gay. On the other hand, the speaker swears to remain the chaste husband of one wife.Emerson was married and sworn to fidelity to his (second) wife. However, it seems quite likely that his first marriageto a beautiful woman who was dying of tuberculosisinvolved tender affection but not sexual relations. His second marriage produced four children. By 1833, Emerson seems to have calculated that he was 10 TheG&LR Henry David Thoreau RALPH WALDO EMERSONS 1841 essay Self-Reliance contains one of the most stirring coming-out challenges ever written. This is not the traditonal reading of the great American essay, to be sure, but I believe that SelfReliancemust be understood in the context of Emersons awareness of unconventional sexual desire, bolstered by his intimate friendship with Henry David Thoreau. Emerson was born in Boston in 1803 and died in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1882. Waldo was ordained as a Unitarian minister in 1829, and the response to his eloquence and personal charm promised job security. But secretly, Emerson was experiencing a crisis of faith, and his sermons minimized doctrine to focus on personal spiritual experience, arguing that each seekers unique encounter with a universal moral law was what really mattered. His first book, Nature, appeared in 1836, and in 1841 and 1842, he published Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series.The First Series includes his most important essay, Self-Reliance. LOVE ME FORWHATIAM TRANSCENDENTALISM, the philosophical movement that Emerson did so much to develop and promote, captured the attention not only of theologians and thinkers but also of the general public, largely because it provided people with pragmatic guidance for the conduct of life. Self-Reliance brilliantly explores this theme: Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. ... Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.Everyone agrees that Self-Relianceis an indictment of mindless conformity and a challenge to think for oneself. But it has rarely been recognized as one of historys first manifestos for people to be honest about their sexual nonconformity. To quote a key passage at length: Live no longer to the expectation of these deceived and deceiving people with whom we converse. Say to them, O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after appearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truths. ... I shall endeavour to nourish my parents, to support my family, to be the chaste husband of one wife,but these relations I must fill after a new and unprecedented way. I appeal from your customs. I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. ... If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly. It is alike your interest, and mine, and all
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