Background: Transcendentalism & The Transcendentalist Movement
Below is some opening background information on Transcendentalism and some of the central practitioners.  To this day, Transcendentalism has many followers.  

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy page on Transcendentalism (def., roots, central  figures)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy page on Transcendentalism (A great source of ideas and movements, this provides similar information to the Encyclopedia above, but the section on Transcendentalism was written and/or put together by Russell Goodman, University of New Mexico Dept. of Philosophy (sections on: Def., Origins and Character, High Tide, Bibliography.  The online Stanford Encyclopedia was developed out of Stanford University through an interdisciplinary and research group)  

The Web of American Transcendentalism (Virginia Commonwealth University, Spring, 1999 (Prof. Ann Woodlief & the Graduate Class, 1999)
See especially:
Authors & Texts; Ideas & Thought (Introduction to Transcendentalism, etc.); Criticism; Roots & Influences (Forerunners; Descendants: Whitman, Dickinson, Douglass)
Read:
Introduction to Transcendentalism & the Overview (Martin Bickman, UOCB)
*Ralph Waldo Emerson (Poet, minister, lecturer, philosopher, author/inventor of the doctrine of Self Reliance; wrote essays on Nature, History, Poetry (The Poet), and several other topics.  See also: Essays, Lectures, and Poetry  [esp. Nature, The Poet, History, Self Reliance, The Over-Soul; Love]; )
*Margaret Fuller (Edited Emerson's journal The Dial; corresponded with Emerson, Poe, and others (Poe highly praised her book); author of Woman in the 19th Century (a key feminist book), The Great Debate, Man vs. Men; Review of Emerson's Essays)
*Henry David Thoreau (Practiced and authored the text Civil Disobedience, wrote Walden Pond, and led an experimental, alternative community attempting to adhere to their moral, philosophical views, among other things; see also The Writings of Henry David Thoreau and Thoreau Institute Site (walden.org).