The single most important part of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s education was that provided for him by his maiden aunt Mary Moody Emerson. He said that in her prime she was "the best writer in Massachussetts.” She was widely read and formidably articulate and thought to have the power of saying more disagreeable things in half an hour than any person living. She was damagingly candid, a vigorous theologian and an original religious thinker. She was 4 feet 3 inches tall and wore her burial shroud when she traveled. Destitute, she lived much of her life alone at a farm called Vale, near Waterford, Maine. She was self educated and a voracious reader.