68. Marshall, Peabody Sisters, 320–22.
69. A. B. Alcott, Conversations, 254–55.
70. Ibid., 255.
71. Ibid., 66.
72. Ibid., 185.
73. Franklin, Autobiography, 101; Marshall, Peabody Sisters, 318–19.
74. Bedell, Alcotts, 122.
75. A. B. Alcott, Conversations, 63.
76. Ibid., 91, 242.
77. Ibid., 63n, 228n.
78. Ibid., 68n.
79. A. B. Alcott, Autobiographical Collections, 1834–39, MS Am 1130.11(3), p. 123, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
80. Ibid., 131.
81. Ibid., 134.
82. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 141.
83. Capper, Margaret Fuller, 198; Bedell, Alcotts, 131.
84. Margaret Fuller to Frederic Henry Hedge, 6 April 1837, in Letters, I, 265.
85. Capper, Margaret Fuller, 209.
86. (Elizabeth Palmer Peabody), “Mr. Alcott’s Book and School,” Christian Register and Boston Observer, 29 April 1837, quoted in Marshall, Peabody Sisters, 326.
87. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Amos Bronson Alcott, Concord, 24 March 1837, in Letters, II, 61.
88. A. B. Alcott, April 1837, Week XV, Journals, 88.
89. Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, VIII, 212.
90. A. B. Alcott, April 1837, Week XV, Journals, 88.
91. Louisa May Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 33.
92. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 146.
93. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Amos Bronson Alcott, Concord, 24 March 1837, in Letters, II, 62.
94. A. B. Alcott, “Psyche,” 260.
95. A. B. Alcott, November 1837, Week XLV, Journals, 94.
96. A. B. Alcott to Anna Alcox, 18 March 1839, in Letters, 42.
97. Bedell, Alcotts, 147.
98. Ibid., 149.
99. A. B. Alcott, 5 February 1839, Journals, 115.
100. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 156.
101. A. B. Alcott, 5 December 1839, Journals, 137.
102. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 180; A. B. Alcott, 18 October 1839, Journals, 136.
CHAPTER FOUR: “ORPHEUS AT THE PLOUGH”
1. Thoreau, A Week on the Concord, 8.
2. A. B. Alcott to Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, Concord, 24 June 1840, in Letters, 50.
3. Anonymous, “Rambles in Concord, Part I,” in A. B. Alcott, Autobiographical Col lections, 1868–71, MS Am 1130.11(7), Houghton Library, Harvard University.
4. L. M. Alcott to the Springfield Republican, Concord, 4 May 1869, in Selected Letters, 127.
5. Thoreau, Walden, 103, 106.
6. Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, V, 382.
7. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller, Concord, 15 April 1840, in Letters, II, 281.
8. A. B. Alcott to Samuel May, Concord, 6 April 1840, in Letters, 47.
9. Anna Alcott, Diary, in Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 181.
10. L. M. Alcott, Moods, 36.
11. Thoreau, A Week on the Concord, 222.
12. Thoreau, Journal, 1837–1844, 164, 172, 171, 168.
13. A. B. Alcott to Louisa May Alcott, Concord, 29 November 1840, in Letters, 54.
14. Emerson, “Education,” in Early Lectures, III, 295–96.
15. A. B. Alcott to Samuel May, Concord, 29 July 1840, in Letters, 51.
16. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. Anna Alcott, Concord, 21 June 1840, in Letters, 48.
17. Bedell, Alcotts, 150.
18. Shepard, Pedlar’s Progress, 294.
19. Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, V, 380.
20. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller, Concord, 15 April 1840, in Letters, II, 281.
21. Henry James Sr., “Women and the ‘Woman’s Movement,’” quoted in Strouse, Alice James, 45.
22. Strouse, Alice James, 13.
23. (R. W. Emerson and Margaret Fuller), “The Editors to the Reader,” The Dial 1 (1840), 1.
24. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 182.
25. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller, Concord, 8 May 1840, in Letters, II, 294.
26. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, Concord, 24 January 1841, MS Am 1130.9(25), Houghton Library, Harvard University.
27. A. B. Alcott, “Orphic Sayings,” The Dial 1 (1840), 86.
28. A. B. Alcott, “Orphic Sayings,” The Dial 1 (1841), 357.
29. A. B. Alcott, “Orphic Sayings,” The Dial 1 (1840), 87.
30. Ibid., 93.
31. William Emerson to Ralph Waldo Emerson (?), 28 August 1840, in R. W. Emerson, Letters, II, 312n.
32. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Thomas Carlyle, Concord, 30 August 1840, in Selected Letters, 224.
33. Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, VIII, 181.
34. A. B. Alcott to Louisa May Alcott, Concord, 21 June 1840, in Letters, 49.
35. A. B. Alcott to Samuel J. May, Concord, 29 July 1840, in Letters, 51.
36. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel May, November 1840, in Barton, Transcendental Wife, 71.
37. Bedell, Alcotts, 162, 234.
38. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, Concord, 24 January 1841, MS Am 1130.9(25).
39. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller, Concord, 16 August 1840, in Letters, II, 323.
40. Sanborn, Bronson Alcott, 12.
41. Ibid., 11.
42. Richardson, Emerson, 359.
43. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller, Concord, 28 January 1842, in Selected Letters, 263.
44. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, Concord, 18 January 1842, in Elbert, Hunger for Home, 45.
45. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 187.
46. Richardson, Emerson, 363.
47. Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, VIII, 210–15.
48. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Thomas Carlyle, Concord, 31 March 1842, in Emerson and Carlyle, Correspondence, 320.
49. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Ship Rosalind, English Channel, 31 May 1842, in Letters, 65–66.
50. Ibid., 67.
51. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Ham Common, 12 June 1842, in Letters, 69.
52. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, London, 17 June 1842, in Letters, 72.
53. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Ham Common, 12 June 1842, in Letters, 69.
54. Ibid., 69–71.
55. Thomas Carlyle to Ralph Waldo Emerson, London, 29 August 1842, in Emerson and Carlyle, Correspondence, 329.
56. A. B. Alcott to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ham Common, 2 July 1842, in Letters, 81.
57. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Ham Common, 16 July 1842, in Letters, 85.
58. Thomas Carlyle to Ralph Waldo Emerson, London, 19 July 1842, in Emerson and Carlyle, Correspondence, 326.
59. Robert Browning to Alfred Donnett, 30 September 1842, in Emerson and Carlyle, Correspondence, 329n.
60. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 7 May 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 142.
61. Bedell, Alcotts, 190–91.
62. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, 31 May 1842, in Letters, 65, 67.
63. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, 17 June and 31 May 1842, in Letters, 73, 67.
64. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, 31 May 1842, in Letters, 67.
65. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 8 July 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 143.
66. Bedell, Alcotts, 193.
67. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 8 July 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 143.
68. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 22 May 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 142–43.
69. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 21 July 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 144.
70. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 9 May 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 142.
71. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 26 July 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 145.
72. Ibid.
73. A. B. Alcott to Junius S. Alcott, Ham Common, 30 June 1842, in Letters, 74.
74. A
. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Ham Common, 16 August 1842, in Letters, 89–90.
75. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 4 September 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 146–47.
76. A. B. Alcott, to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Ham Common, 16 August 1842, in Letters, 90.
77. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 16 September 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 147.
78. Thomas Carlyle to Ralph Waldo Emerson, London, 11 March 1843, in Emerson and Carlyle, Correspondence, 338.
79. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 21 and 23 October 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 148.
80. Sanborn, Bronson Alcott, 26.
81. Ibid.
82. Charles Lane to William Oldham, 30 November 1842, in Bedell, Alcotts, 195.
83. Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, VIII, 404.
84. Ibid., 367.
85. Sanborn, Bronson Alcott, 43–44.
86. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 29 November 1842, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 148–49.
87. A. B. Alcott to Louisa May Alcott, Concord, 29 November 1842, in Letters, 93.
88. A. B. Alcott to Anna, Louisa, Elizabeth, and May Alcott, Concord, 1 February 1843, in Letters, 96–97.
89. Bedell, Alcotts, 202.
90. Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, VIII, 310.
91. Ibid., 301.
92. Charles Lane to William Oldham, Concord, 31 May 1843, in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 14.
93. Ibid., 15.
CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOWING OF THE SEEDS
1. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 147.
2. Ibid.
3. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 1 June 1843, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 152–53.
4. Charles Lane to William Oldham, Fruitlands, 28 June 1843, in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 26.
5. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 152.
6. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 59.
7. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 1 June 1843, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 153.
8. Ibid.
9. A. B. Alcott and Charles Lane, “Intelligence,” The Dial 4 (1843), 135.
10. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 156.
11. L. M. Alcott, 1 September 1843, Journals, 45.
12. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 76.
13. Ibid., 43.
14. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 154.
15. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 47–48.
16. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 158–59.
17. Charles Lane and A. B. Alcott to A. Brooke, Fruitlands, n.d., in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 50.
18. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 157.
19. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Fourierism and the Socialists,” The Dial 3 (1842), 87.
20. Charles Lane to William Oldham, 30 July 1843, in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 31–32.
21. Charles Lane and A. B. Alcott to A. Brooke, in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 51.
22. Thoreau, Walden, 197–201.
23. L. M. Alcott to Sophia Gardner, Concord, 23 September 1845, in Selected Letters, 4.
24. L. M. Alcott, 10 December 1843, Journals, 47.
25. L. M. Alcott, 1 September 1843, Journals, 45.
CHAPTER SIX: FIRST FRUITS
1. This judgment as to Anna’s pervading optimism is based on the surviving record. Her journal entries from the fall and winter, like some of Louisa’s, were removed and destroyed by Bronson.
2. Anna Alcott, Journal, 24 June 1843, in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 93.
3. A. B. Alcott to Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, Fruitlands, 24 June 1843, in Letters, 105.
4. Ibid., 105–06.
5. Charles Lane, “To Elizabeth,” in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 94.
6. Abigail May Alcott, Diary, 25 June 1843, in Bedell, Alcotts, 215.
7. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 94.
8. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 2 July 1843, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 153.
9. L. M. Alcott, 24 September 1843, Journals, 45.
10. L. M. Alcott, 23 December 1843, Journals, 48.
11. L. M. Alcott, 25 December 1843, Journals, 50. Louisa was somewhat inconsistent in pinpointing the time when she first became aware of life’s difficulty. She wrote else where that “the trials of life” did not begin for her until the family moved to Hillside. L.M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 36.
12. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1843, Journals, 51. Remarkably, although her health had radically declined, Louisa continued to go for runs until the summer before her death. Journals, 17 and 18 July 1887, 307.
13. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1843, Journals, 51.
14. Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, VIII, 433.
15. Ibid.
16. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 24 July 1843, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 153.
17. Abigail May Alcott to Charles May, 6 November 1843, MS Am 1130.9(25), Houghton Library, Harvard University.
18. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 4 November 1843, MS Am 1130.9(25).
19. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 163.
20. Ibid., 162–63.
21. Ibid., 163.
22. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for August 1843, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 154.
23. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 26 August 1843, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 155.
24. Emerson, “New England Reformers,” in Essays and Lectures, 591–92.
25. Ibid., 591.
26. Charles Lane to William Oldham, 29 September 1843, in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 94.
27. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 39.
28. Ibid., 121; Stern, Louisa May Alcott, 38.
29. Journal of Isaac Hecker, in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 76–77.
30. Ibid., 77.
31. Ibid., 76.
32. Ibid., 78.
33. Ibid., 84.
34. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 85.
35. Ibid., 79.
36. Ibid., 81.
37. Ibid., 82.
38. Ibid., 85.
39. Journal of Isaac Hecker, in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 84.
40. L. M. Alcott, 8 October 1843, Journals, 46.
41. L. M. Alcott, 12 October 1843, Journals, 46.
42. L. M. Alcott, 2 November 1843, Journals, 47.
43. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, Fruitlands, n.d., MS Am 1130.9(25).
44. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller, Concord, 7 August 1843, in Letters, III, 196.
CHAPTER SEVEN: LOST ILLUSIONS
1. Charles Lane, “A Day with the Shakers,” in Fogarty, comp., American Utopianism, 22. Although Lane reported the use of coffee and tea among the Harvard Shakers, these substances were strongly discouraged in the typical Shaker community. Either there was some unusual laxity in the Harvard colony, or Lane was mistaken about these iniquities.
2. Ibid., 23.
3. Holloway, Heavens, 67.
4. Ibid., 69.
5. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 26 August 1843, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 154.
6. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 121.
7. Anna Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, Fruitlands, n.d., Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, Mass.
8. L. M. Alcott, 12 October 1843, Journals, 46.
9. L. M. Alcott, 2 November 1843, Journals, 46–47.
10. L. M. Alcott, 14 September 1843, Journals, 45.
11. L. M. Alcott, 8 October 1843, Journals, 46.
12. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 198.
13. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” in Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 165.<
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14. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 114–15.
15. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, Fruitlands, n.d., MS Am 1130.9(25), Houghton Library, Harvard University.
16. Bedell, Alcotts, 226.
17. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 120.
18. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller, Concord, 17 December 1843, in Selected Letters, 297.
19. Elbert, Hunger for Home, 60.
20. Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, 13.
21. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 11 November 1843, MS Am 1130.9(25).
22. Abigail May Alcott to Charles May, 6 November 1843, MS Am 1130.9(25).
23. Alcott biographer Madelon Bedell has even surmised a budding homosexual liaison between Alcott and Lane, though this supposition appears to rest more on imagination than on evidence. Bedell, Alcotts, 228.
24. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 122–23.
25. L. M. Alcott, 20 November 1843, Journals, 47.
26. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 110–11.
27. Charles Lane to William Oldham, quoted in William Harry Harland, “Bronson Alcott’s English Friends,” Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, Mass.
28. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller, Concord, 17 December 1843, in Selected Letters, 297.
29. L. M. Alcott, 10 December 1843, Journals, 47.
30. L. M. Alcott, October 1856, Journals, 79.
31. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 1 January 1844, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 156.
32. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 11 January 1844, in Bedell, Alcotts, 231.
33. L. M. Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 170–72.
34. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 127.
35. A. B. Alcott to Junius S. Alcott, Concord, 28 October 1844, in Letters, 115.
CHAPTER EIGHT: FATHER AND DAUGHTER
1. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody to Sophia Hawthorne, in Mellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 405.
2. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 3 February 1844, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 157.
3. A. B. Alcott to Junius S. Alcott, Still River, Mass., 15 June 1844, in Letters, 111.
4. Mike Volmar, Curator, Fruitlands Museum, e-mail message to author, 30 November 2006.
5. Bedell, Alcotts, 292.
6. Sears, comp., Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, 122.
7. Bedell, Alcotts, 233.
8. Swayne, Story of Concord, 135.
9. A. B. Alcott, 9 February 1851, Journals, 241.
10. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 28 January 1844, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 157.
11. Bedell, Alcotts, 300.
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