The transcendentalists, with Emerson as their spokesperson, provided a positive response to two questions that had been the chief concern of American authors: l) Did America provide a favorable cultural climate for writers, artists, and intellectuals? 2) Was America capable of making a literature of its own fit to stand with the literatures of England and the other countries? Henry David Thoreau is today considered one of the major Transcendentalists. He is known chiefly as either the friend of Emerson or as a supreme nature writer, one chiefly associated with Walden Pond. If Emerson is the Father of Transcendentalism (William Ellery Channing being the Grandfather), then Thoreau might be regarded as the rebellious son. Learn more in this article, made available by The World & I Online.