Among the graves on Authors Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (map), the Emerson family plot is most prominent.

Shaded by oaks and evergreens, enclosed by chains supported by granite posts, the foremost gravestones are those of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882; center), Lidian Jackson Emerson (1802-1892; his wife, left) and Ellen Tucker Emerson (1839-1909; their daughter, right).

On the boulder of rose quartz, a bronze plaque is cast with Emerson's name, dates and epitaph:

RALPH WALDO EMERSON
BORN IN BOSTON MAY 25 1803
DIED IN CONCORD APRIL 27 1882

THE PASSIVE MASTER LENT HIS HAND
TO THE VAST SOUL THAT OER HIM PLANNED

(Note the quarter dollar [on the left] and dime [right], votives perched on the plaque by admirers upon their visit to the poet's tomb.)

Graves of Ralph Waldo and Lidian's descendants—and a few ancestors, such as the redoubtable Mary Moody Emerson, who taught him much—fill the remainder of the plot.

A particularly touching monument is that of the Emersons' son Waldo, whose death at age 5 broke the hearts of his parents.

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