Eden's Outcasts

by John Matteson

  12. N. Hawthorne, “The Artist of the Beautiful,” in Tales and Sketches, 920.

  13. A. B. Alcott, 6 October 1851, Journals, 254.

  14. N. Hawthorne, “The Hall of Fantasy,” in Tales and Sketches, 1492.

  15. N. Hawthorne, “The Custom-House,” in Collected Novels, 133, 140.

  16. Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, IX, 86.

  17. Emerson, “New England Reformers,” in Essays and Lectures, 598.

  18. As literary critic Jeffrey S. Cramer has observed, one of the principles that Thoreau gleaned from Fruitlands was a philosophical rejection of animal labor. Thoreau expressed Alcott’s thoughts on the subject in a well-turned chiasmus: “I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men.” Thoreau added that no nation of philosophers would consent to the use of animal labor. However, he noted with a glint of Yankee practicality, “There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers.” Thoreau, Walden, 54.

  19. A. B. Alcott to Junius S. Alcott, Boston, 7 December 1850, in Letters, 160.

  20. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 22 March 1844, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 158.

  21. Abigail May Alcott, Journal Entry for 23 May 1844, in A. B. Alcott, Journals, 158.

  22. Annie M. L. Clark, The Alcotts in Harvard, in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 120.

  23. Frederick L. H. Willis, Alcott Memoirs, in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 177.

  24. Ibid., 177–78.

  25. Ibid., 171.

  26. Clark, The Alcotts in Harvard, 121.

  27. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1845, Journals, 56.

  28. A. B. Alcott to Junius S. Alcott, Concord, 28 January 1845, in Letters, 119.

  29. Nathaniel Hawthorne to G. W. Curtis, Concord, 14 July 1852, in Letters, 1843–1853, 567.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Ibid.

  32. A. B. Alcott, 9 February 1847, Journals, 190.

  33. L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 36.

  34. L. M. Alcott, March 1846, Journals, 59.

  35. A. B. Alcott, 3 January 1846, Journals, 170.

  36. Stern, Louisa May Alcott, 46.

  37. Willis, Alcott Memoirs, 172.

  38. Edward W. Emerson, “When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl,” in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 95.

  39. Stern, Louisa May Alcott, 58.

  40. Edward W. Emerson, “When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl,” 94.

  41. A. B. Alcott, April 1846, Journals, 176.

  42. Thoreau, Walden, 43.

  43. Ibid., 259.

  44. Ibid., 260.

  45. Emerson, “Friendship,” in Essays and Lectures, 352.

  46. A. B. Alcott, 28 June 1846, Journals, 182.

  47. A. B. Alcott, 12 August and 18 October 1847, Journals, 196.

  48. Bedell, Alcotts, 251.

  49. L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 36.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Clara Gowing, The Alcotts As I Knew Them, in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 137.

  52. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1845, Journals, 55–56.

  53. L. M. Alcott to Sophia Gardner, Concord, 23 September 1845, in Selected Letters, 4.

  54. Barton, Transcendental Wife, 126; L. M. Alcott to Sophia Gardner, Concord, 23 September 1845, in Selected Letters, 4.

  55. Barton, Transcendental Wife, 126–27; Saxton, Louisa May, 180.

  56. Bedell, Alcotts, 256.

  57. Thoreau to Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Saxton, Louisa May, 176.

  58. L. M. Alcott to Sophia Gardner, Concord, 23 September 1845, in Selected Letters, 4.

  59. Lydia Hosmer Wood, “Beth Alcott’s Playmate: A Glimpse of Concord Town in the Days of Little Women,” in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 165.

  60. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1845, Journals, 57.

  61. L. M. Alcott to Maggie Lukens, 5 February 1884, in Selected Letters, 276.

  62. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1845, Journals, 57.

  63. A. B. Alcott, Sonnets, 79.

  64. L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 35.

  65. Clark, The Alcotts in Harvard, 122.

  66. Willis, Alcott Memoirs, 181; Edward W. Emerson, “When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl,” 95; Cheney, ed., Louisa May Alcott, 328.

  67. Cheney, ed., Louisa May Alcott, 328.

  68. Anna Alcott, Journal, 1 September 1845, 3 September 1846, in Bonstelle, ed., Little Women Letters, 131, 133; L. M. Alcott, August 1850, Journals, 63.

  69. Wood, “Beth Alcott’s Playmate,” 167.

  70. Bedell, Alcotts, 245.

  71. L. M. Alcott, Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys, 10.

  72. Anna Alcott Pratt, “A Foreword by Meg,” in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 75; Wood, “Beth Alcott’s Playmate,” 165.

  73. Edward W. Emerson, “When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl,” 92.

  74. A. B. Alcott to Anna, Louisa, Elizabeth, and May Alcott, Ham Common, 15 July 1842, in Letters, 83.

  75. A. B. Alcott, 6 October 1851, Journals, 254.

  76. A. B. Alcott, April 1846, Journals, 175.

  77. A. B. Alcott, March 1846, Journals, 173.

  78. L. M. Alcott, March 1846, Journals, 59.

  79. Stern, Louisa May Alcott, 57.

  80. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 17 April 1845, in Bedell, Alcotts, 239.

  81. Abigail May Alcott, Diary, 24 November 1846, in Bedell, Alcotts, 239.

  82. A. B. Alcott, 16 March 1846, Journals, 173.

  83. L. M. Alcott, Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys, 89.

  84. A. B. Alcott, 16 March 1846, Journals, 173.

  85. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 17 April 1845, in Barton, Transcendental Wife, 123.

  86. A. B. Alcott, Concord Days, 46.

  87. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 232.

  88. Ibid.

  89. Wood, “Beth Alcott’s Playmate,” 167.

  90. Heilbrun, Writing, 64.

  91. A. B. Alcott, 13 May 1839, Journals, 128.

  92. Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, VII, 539.

  93. L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 36.

  94. A. B. Alcott, Journal for 1848, 7 April, MS Am 1130.12(17), Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  95. Bedell, Alcotts, 272.

  96. L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 37.

  97. Ibid.

  CHAPTER NINE: DESTITUTION

  1. A. B. Alcott to Louisa and May Alcott, Boston, 17 June 1849, Letters, 151.

  2. L. M. Alcott, May 1850, Journals, 61.

  3. Bedell, Alcotts, 282.

  4. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1851, Journals, 65.

  5. A. B. Alcott, Journals, 198; Bedell, Alcotts, 272.

  6. L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 37.

  7. L. M. Alcott, August 1850, Journals, 63.

  8. With gleaming sarcasm, Ellery Channing referred to Bronson’s ever-increasing compendium of journals as the “Encyclopédie de Moi-Même en Cent Volumes.” Saxton, Louisa May, 189.

  9. L. M. Alcott, May 1850, Journals, 61, 62.

  10. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 221.

  11. L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 38.

  12. Ibid., 37.

  13. L. M. Alcott, July 1850, Journals, 63. Emphasis in original.

  14. L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 38.

  15. L. M. Alcott, Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys, 251–52.

  16. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 228.

  17. Shepard, Pedlar’s Progress, 438.

  18. A. B. Alcott, Diary for 1850, 2 February, MS Am 1130.12(19), pp. 166–67, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  19. Saxton, Louisa May, 178; Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 229.

  20. Taking the content of the poem at its word, Madelon Bedell has speculated that Alcott’s demons indeed pursued him out of his home and that he spent some undetermined time wandering about Boston in a state of temporary derangement. Bedell, Alcotts, 299. Although other Alcott biographers have responded
less literally to “The Return,” all agree that his work on “Tablets” brought on an almost total mental breakdown. Odell Shepard writes that Alcott’s visions were so potent that they “nearly snatched him out of life as this world knows it.” Shepard, Pedlar’s Progress, 442.

  21. A. B. Alcott, 30 June 1850, Journals, 231–32.

  22. A. B. Alcott, 13 July 1850, Journals, 232.

  23. A. B. Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, Concord, 17 September 1849, in Letters, 152.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Anonymous, “An Evening with Alcott,” in A. B. Alcott, Autobiographical Collections, 1868–71, MS Am 1130.11(7), p. 68, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  26. Ibid.

  27. A. B. Alcott, Journal for 1837, Week VIII (February), MS Am 1130.12(10), p. 125, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  28. Anonymous, “An Evening with Alcott,” 68.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Dahlstrand, Amos Bronson Alcott, 222.

  31. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1850, Journals, 62.

  32. L. M. Alcott, “How I Went Out to Service,” in Alternative Alcott, 350.

  33. Ibid., 354.

  34. Ibid, 358.

  35. Richardson, Emerson, 112; Reynolds, John Brown, 208.

  36. A. B. Alcott, 4 April 1851, Journals, 244.

  37. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1851, Journals, 65.

  38. Von Frank, Trials, 29.

  39. A. B. Alcott, 15 April 1851, Journals, 246.

  40. A. B. Alcott, 25 April 1851, Journals, 248.

  41. A. B. Alcott, 31 May 1851, Journals, 249.

  42. Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 28 April 1851 and 14 December 1852, in Bedell, Alcotts, 283.

  43. Abigail May Alcott, Diary, 4 April 1850, in Bedell, Alcotts, 276.

  44. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1852, Journals, 67.

  45. Ibid.

  46. A. B. Alcott, Diary for 1850, 197.

  47. Anna Alcox, Diary, 26 April 1852, in Bedell, Alcotts, 315.

  48. A. B. Alcott, Journal, 8 May 1852, in Shepard, Pedlar’s Progress, 445.

  49. Anonymous, Semi-Weekly Eagle (Brattleboro, Vt.), 18 March 1852.

  50. A. B. Alcott, 6 January 1850, Journal, 220.

  51. A. B. Alcott to Anna Bronson Alcott, Cincinnati, 22 November 1853, in Letters, 171.

  52. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Cleveland, 11 December 1853, in Letters, 177.

  53. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Medina, Ohio, 4 December 1853, in Letters, 177.

  54. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1854, Journals, 71.

  55. A. B. Alcott to Anna Bronson Alcott, Cincinnati, 16 November 1853, in Letters, 171; A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Medina, Ohio, 4 December 1853, in Letters, 176; A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Syracuse, 18 December 1853, in Letters, 180.

  56. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Syracuse, 15 January 1854, in Letters, 182, 183.

  57. A. B. Alcott, 9 February 1874, Journals, 446.

  58. Bedell, Alcotts, 332; Von Frank, Trials, 62–70.

  59. Wendell Phillips himself was not present; he was hard at work still trying to find some means of securing Burns’s release.

  60. Among the most odious provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law was that it authorized the payment of ten dollars to the commissioner who determined that a person brought before him was a fugitive, but only five dollars in a case where the detained person was set free.

  61. Stern, ed., L. M. Alcott, 11.

  62. A. B. Alcott, 2 June 1854, Journals, 273.

  63. A. B. Alcott, 11–13 August 1854, Journals, 274.

  64. Thoreau, Walden, 261, 260.

  65. L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1854, Journals, 72; L. M. Alcott, 1 January 1855, Journals, 73. Louisa’s journals report the earnings of Flower Fables in one place as thirty-two dollars, and thirty-five in another.

  66. L. M. Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, 25 December 1854, in Selected Letters, 11.

  67. L. M. Alcott to Amos Bronson Alcott, 25 December 1854, in Selected Letters, 12–13.

  68. L. M. Alcott, June 1855, Journals, 75.

  69. A. B. Alcott, 3–8 September 1855, Journals, 276.

  70. The stories included “The Sisters’ Trial,” “Bertha,” and “Genevieve.”

  71. L. M. Alcott, November 1855, Journals, 75.

  72. A. B. Alcott, 9 November 1855, Journals, 277.

  73. L. M. Alcott to Amos Bronson Alcott, 28 November 1855, in Selected Letters, 13–14.

  74. A. B. Alcott, 9 February 1866, Journals, 379.

  75. A. B. Alcott to Louisa May Alcott, Walpole, N.H., 27 November 1855, in Letters, 190.

  76. Ibid.

  77. L. M. Alcott to Miss Seymour, 21 September 1856, in Selected Letters, 16.

  78. L. M. Alcott, Moods, 227.

  79. A. B. Alcott to Louisa May Alcott, 31 March 1856, in Letters, 191.

  80. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. Anna Alcott, 5 August 1856, in Letters, 193.

  81. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, 4 October 1856, in Letters, 198–99.

  82. Ibid., 198.

  83. L. M. Alcott to Amos Bronson Alcott, Boston, 29 November 1856, in Selected Letters, 26.

  84. Ibid.

  85. Shepard, Pedlar’s Progress, 446.

  86. A. B. Alcott, 4 October 1856, Journals, 286–87.

  87. A. B. Alcott, 9 November 1856, Journals, 288.

  88. A. B. Alcott, 10 November 1856, Journals, 290–91.

  89. Richardson, Henry Thoreau, 348–49.

  90. Euripides, Medea, 16.

  91. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, 2 March 1857, in Letters, 234.

  92. A. B. Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, New Haven, 13 March 1857, in Letters, 239.

  93. L. M. Alcott, June 1857, Journals, 85

  94. L. M. Alcott, July 1857, Journals, 85.

  95. Ibid.

  96. Ibid.

  97. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Walpole, N.H., 3 August 1857, in Letters, 246.

  98. A. B. Alcott to Anna Alcott, Walpole, N.H., 28 August 1857, in Letters, 251.

  99. A. B. Alcott to Anna, Louisa, and May Alcott, Boston, 9 September 1857, in Letters, 252–53.

  CHAPTER TEN: ORCHARD HOUSE

  1. Nathaniel Hawthorne to William D. Ticknor, Leamington, England, 5 November 1857, in Letters, 1857–1864, 127–28.

  2. A. B. Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, Buffalo, 14 December 1857, in Letters, 269.

  3. Alfred Whitman, “Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, Told by Laurie,” in Shealy, ed., Alcott, 106.

  4. Stern, Louisa May Alcott, 81–82.

  5. Whitman, “Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy,” 106.

  6. A. B. Alcott, 23 January 1858, Journals, 303.

  7. Ibid., 304.

  8. L. M. Alcott, 14 March 1858, Journals, 88.

  9. Ibid., 89.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid.

  12. A. B. Alcott, 14 March 1858, Journals, 307.

  13. L. M. Alcott to Eliza Wells, Concord, 19 March 1858, in Selected Letters, 32.

  14. Ibid., 33.

  15. Ibid.

  16. L. M. Alcott, 14 March 1858, Journals, 89.

  17. L. M. Alcott, MS Am 1130.13(16), Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  18. A. B. Alcott, Diary for 1858, 14 March, MS Am 1130.12(28), p. 127, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  19. A. B. Alcott, 16 March 1858, Journals, 307.

  20. L. M. Alcott, 14 March 1858, Journals, 88.

  21. A. B. Alcott, 4 April 1858, Journals, 307–8.

  22. A. B. Alcott, 18 September 1858, Journals, 309.

  23. L. M. Alcott, May 1858, Journals, 89.

  24. A. B. Alcott, 7 April 1858, Journals, 308.

  25. L. M. Alcott, May 1858, Journals, 89.

  26. L. M. Alcott, Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys, 236.

  27. L. M. Alcott, May 1858, Journals, 89.

  28. L. M. Alcott, July 1858, Journals, 90.

  29. L. M. Alcott, Work, 123.

  30. Ibid., 124.

  31. L. M. Alcott, October 1858, Journals, 90.

  32. Ibid
., 90–91.

  33. L. M. Alcott to the Alcott Family, October 1858, in Selected Letters, 34–36.

  34. A. B. Alcott, 16 February 1858, Journals, 306.

  35. A. B. Alcott, Diary for 1858, 13 October, 346.

  36. A. B. Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, Syracuse, 4 December 1858, in Letters, 282.

  37. A. B. Alcott, Diary for 1858, 1 November, 381. The entry reads, “Write to Louisa concerning her story for the Atlantic Monthly.” At that time, Louisa had not yet sent any of her work to The Atlantic, so Bronson’s letter must have concerned the prospect of a future submission. In her journal for the month of November 1858, Louisa wrote, “I even think of trying the ‘Atlantic.’ There’s ambition for you.” Journals, 92.

  38. L. M. Alcott, November 1858, Journals, 92.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Anna Bronson Alcott to Amos Bronson Alcott, Apple-Slump, 7 December 1858, MS Am 1130.9(27), Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  41. A. B. Alcott to May Alcott, St. Louis, 2 January 1859, in Letters, 291.

  42. L. M. Alcott, November 1858, Journals, 91–92.

  43. Ibid., 91.

  44. L. M. Alcott, “Love and Self-Love,” in Selected Fiction, 56–75.

  45. Ibid., 68.

  46. Anna Bronson Alcott to Amos Bronson Alcott, Apple-Slump, 7 December 1858.

  47. L. M. Alcott, November 1858, Journals, 92.

  48. A. B. Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, Syracuse, 4 December 1858, in Letters, 283.

  49. Anna Bronson Alcott to Amos Bronson Alcott, Apple-Slump, 7 December 1858.

  50. A. B. Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, Chicago, 27 December 1858, in Letters, 288.

  51. A. B. Alcott to Louisa May Alcott, Chicago, 23 December 1858, in Letters, 286.

  52. Abigail May Alcott to A. Bronson Alcott, (Concord), 25 December 1858, MS Am 1130.9(27).

  53. Anna Bronson Alcott to Amos Bronson Alcott, (Concord), 26 December 1858, MS Am 1130.9(27).

  54. Ibid.

  55. A. B. Alcott to Louisa May Alcott, Cleveland, 7 February 1859, in Letters, 298.

  56. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, St. Louis, 17 January 1859, in Letters, 294.

  57. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Cincinnati, 30 January 1859, in Letters, 296.

  58. Ibid.

  59. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Cleveland, 13 February 1859, in Letters, 299.

  60. A. B. Alcott to Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, Cincinnati, 21 January 1859, in Letters, 295.

  61. A. B. Alcott, 4 March 1859, Journals, 314.

  62. Ibid., 313.

  63. L. M. Alcott, March 1859, Journals, 94.