“Emerson: The Ideal in America” is a video biography of the man who is still America’s most quoted author. Spanning most of the turbulent 19th century, Emerson’s life took him from a financially poor but intellectually rich childhood through an education at Harvard to early success as pastor of a prominent Boston Unitarian Church. But personal tragedy and his own doubts about organized religion set him on a journey of discovery that took him to Europe and deep into the philosophical traditions of the East as well as the West. Through his writings and lectures, he became one of the most influential figures of his time, inspiring presidents, other philosophers, and writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Walt Whitman. His central message of “the infinitude of the private man” opened the eyes of the men and women who read and heard him to their own unlimited potential. The film includes interviews with Emerson experts: Richard G. Geldard, author of God in Concord: Emerson’s Awakening to the Infinite Robert D. Richardson Jr., author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire Richard Grossman, psychotherapist and author of “A Year with Emerson,” Barbara Solowey, teacher and lecturer, Sarah Ann Wider, Professor at Colgate University, President of the Emerson Society Readings of Emerson’s words by Stephen Newman.