Who led the Transcendentalist movement in America?

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the founder of the Transcendentalist movement in American literature. Emerson is known for his essays "Self-Reliance" and "Nature. His protege, who became a well-known Transcendental author as well, was Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau became well-known for his experiment in simplicity, living alone in a small cabin at Walden Pond in Massachusetts. He wrote about his experiences and thoughts during that time in the book Walden.