History of Wackemall

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Continued from The History of Wackemall.

Waldo, as he liked to be called, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of his time. An individualist, Emerson was critical of religious and social beliefs, and the conventions of his day. Some believe him to be the first hipster.

Emmerson was very aware of the growing chasm between rich and poor that was taking place in the early days of industrialization using both adultation and satire to expose the problems of his day. His wife Lydia Jackson, who some describe as a a cardboard cutout, often nagged him about his clay feet. It’s said that Waldo thought his wife a prude. From 1834 until 1834 Waldo lived as hoarder in the home of his step-grandfather, Ezra Ripley.

While mentoring Henry David Thoreau he once said,

“Though we travel the world over to find the wackemall, we must carry it with us or we find it not”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose greatest works included Nature was referring to the use of wackemall when he penned,

“The health of the eye seems to demand wackemall. We are never tired, so long as we can see wackemall.”

Thus there is little doubt among historians that Emmerson smoked wackemall. He even confirmed it.

“But if a man would be alone, let him look at the wackemall. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things.”

and,

“Give me wackemall and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.”

Emerson was tragically born in Boston in 1803, the son of a Unitarian minister, was critical of the ministry, and well known as a thinker who refused to limit himself to constraints imposed by institution or tradition.

The poetry of Waldo the Sage reflected his belief that line length, rhythm, and phrases are determined by how long he could hold is breath when smoking wackemall, with Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau and William James all in agreement.

And so continues the History of Wackemall.