Emerson is a very challenging writer, and primarily an essayist and poet. Whitman is also challenging but Whitman has a layer of accessibility covering all his mystical esoterism and mystery. Whitman is not typically classed among the transcendentalists, though he was influenced and knew many of them.

>>8227183
>What sort of "prerequisites" do I need to have erad before getting into the transcendentalists

bad taste

>>8227183

(cont.) both authors will give of themselves in proportion to the commitment you give them as a reader.

>>8227183
Read short biographies on the authors and check out their correspondences. The nice thing about transcendentalism is that the thinking is usually entirely the authors' own. Otherwise, maybe read Hawthorne first?

>>8228100
Note: none of this is "necessary" to understanding them, just suggested if you want to have a solid background on them.