"Very sad, indeed, it was to see this half-god driven to the wall, reproaching men, and hesitating whether he should not reproach the gods. The world was not, on trial, a possible element for him to live in. A lover of law had tried whether law could be kept in this world, and all things answered, "No." He had entertained the thought of leaving it, and going where freedom and an element could be found. And if he should be found tomorrow at the roadside, it would be the act of the world.

We pleaded guilty to perceiving the inconvenience and the inequality of property, and he said, "I will not be a convict." Very tedious and prosing and egotistical and narrow he is, but a profound insight, a Power, a majestical man, looking easily along the centuries to explore his "contemporaries," with a painful sense of being an orphan and a hermit here. I feel his statement to be partial and to have fatal omissions, but I think I shall never attempt to set him right any more. It is not for me to answer him: though I feel the limitations and exaggeration of his picture, and the wearisome personalities.

His statement proves too much: it is a REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM. But I was quite ashamed to have just revised and printed last week the old paper denying the existence of tragedy, when this modern Prometheus was in the heat of his quarrel with the gods...."

- Ralph W. Emerson, Journals, April, 1844

| Top | Selected Bibliography

Bedell, Madelon. The Alcotts: Biography of a Family. NY: Clarkson N. Potter, 1980.

Bennett, Fordyce R. "Sources for Alcott's Fruitlands." American Transcendental Quarterly (ATQ) 32 (1976): 19-20.

Biddle, Arthur W. "Bronson and Chatfield Alcott in Virginia: New Evidence." ATQ 17 (1973): 3-9.

Blanding, Thomas. "Julius Ward's Day in Concord in 1878." Concord Saunterer 19.2 (1987): 54-61.

Cameron, Kenneth W. "Thoreau's Walden and Alcott's Vegetarianism." ATQ 2 (1969): 27-28.

- - -. "Some Alcott Conversations in 1863." ATQ 17 (1973): 25-29, 31.

- - -. Transcendental Curriculum or Bronson Alcott's Library; Inventory of 1858-1860 with Addenda to 1888, incl. Lib. at Fruitlands (1842-1843), To Which Is Added Sheaf of Ungathered Alcott Letters. Hartford, CT: Transcendental Books, 1984.

- - -. Young Reporter of Concord: A Checklist of F. B. Sanborn's Letters to Benjamin Smith Lyman, 1853 1867, with Extracts Emphasizing Life and Literary Events in the World of Emerson, Thoreau and Alcott. Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1978.

Carlson, Larry A. "Bronson Alcott's 'Journal for 1838' (Part One)." Studies in the American Renaissance (1993): 161-244.

- - -. "Bronson Alcott's 'Journal for 1838' (Part Two)." Studies in the American Renaissance (1994): 123-93.

- - -. "'Those pure pages of yours': Bronson Alcott's Conversations with Children on the Gospels." American Literature 60.3 (Oct 1988): 451-460.

- - -. "Bronson Alcott's 'Journal for 1837' (Part Two)." Studies in the American Renaissance (1982): 53-167.

- - -. "Bronson Alcott's "Journal for 1837" (Part One)." Studies in the American Renaissance (1981): 27-132.

Carson, Barbara H. "Bronson Alcott and the New England Mysteries." Studia Mystica 2.2 (1979): 56-69.

Caruthers, J. Wade. "The Transcendentalist as Mystic: Amos Bronson Alcott." Connecticut Review 9.2 (1976): 90-99.

| Top | Dahlstrand, Frederick C. "Amos Bronson Alcott." The Transcendentalists: A Review of Research and Criticism. Ed. Joel Myerson. NY: Mod. Lang. Assn. of America, 1984.

De Puy, Harry. "Amos Bronson Alcott: Natural Resource, or 'Consecrated Crank?'" ATQ 1.1 (1987): 49-68.

Deese, Helen R. "Alcott's Conversations on the Transcendentalists: The Record of Caroline Dall." American Literature 60.1 (Mar 1988): 17-25.

Francis, Richard. "Circumstances and Salvation: The Ideology of the Fruitlands Utopia." American Quarterly 25 (1973): 202-34.

- - -. Transcendental Utopias: Individual and Community at Brook Farm, Fruitlands, and Walden. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1997.

Gay, Carol. "The Philosopher and His Daughter: Amos Bronson Alcott and Louisa." Essays in Literature 2 (1975): 181-91.

Herrnstadt, Richard L. ed. The Letters of A. Bronson Alcott. Ames: Iowa State U.P., 1969.

Hesford, Walter. Alcott's Criticism of A Week." Resources for American Literary Study 6 (1976): 81-84.

Hoeltje, Hubert H. Sheltering Tree; a Story of the Friendship of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Amos Bronson Alcott. 1965. PS1633.A6 H6

Herrnstadt, Richard L., ed. The Letters of A. Bronson Alcott, 1969. PS1013.A45 H4

Hollis, C. Carroll. "A New England Outpost, As Revealed in Some Unpublished Letters of Emerson, Parker, and Alcott to Ainsworth Spofford." New England Quarterly 38 (1965): 65-85.

Johnston, Carol. "Transcendentalist Communities." The Transcendentalists: A Review of Research and Criticism. Ed. Joel Myerson. NY: Mod. Lang. Assn. of America, 1984.

| Top | Kennedy, William S. "Concord Recollections: Some Fresh Reminiscences of Emerson, Alcott and Thoreau." ATQ 36 (1977): 43-45.

Latham, Jacqueline E. M. "Fruitlands: A Postscript." Studies in the American Renaissance (1995): 61-67.

Lyons, Nathan. "Alcott and Rudolf Steiner: Educators of the Whole Man." ESQ 57 (1969): 12-16.

Meigs, Cornelia. Louisa May Alcott and the American Family Story. London: The Bodley Head Ltd. 1970.

Myerson, Joel. "Bronson Alcott's 'Scripture for 1840'." ESQ 77 (1974): 237-59.

- - -. "William Harry Harland's 'Bronson Alcott's English Friends'." Resources for American Literary Study 8 (1978): 24-60.

- - -. Bronson Alcott's 'Journal for 1836'." Resources for American Literary Study 8 (1978): 17-104.

- - -. "'Our Children Are Our Best Works': Bronson and Louisa May Alcott." Critical Essays on Louisa May Alcott. Ed. Madeleine B. Stern. Boston: Hall, 1984.

- - -. "Additions to Bronson Alcott's Bibliography: Letters and 'Orphic Sayings' in the Plain Speaker.' New England Quarterly 49 (1976): 283-92.

- - -. "'In the Transcendental Emporium': Bronson Alcott's 'Orphic Sayings' in the Dial." English Language Notes 10 (1972): 31-38.

Muncy, Raymond Lee. Sex and Marriage in Utopian Communities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1973

Pannill, H. Burnell. "Bronson Alcott: Emerson's 'Tedious Archangel'." A Miscellany of American Christianity: Essays in Honor of H. Shelton Smith. Ed. Stuart C. Henry. Durham: Duke UP, 1963.

Rosa, Alfred F. "Alcott and Montessori." Connecticut Review 3.1 (1969): 98-103.

Schmidt, Bernard. "Bronson Alcott's Developing Personalism and the Argument with Emerson." ATQ 8.4 (1994): 311-27.

| Top | Sommer, Robert F. "A Firsthand Report of the Operation of Alcott's Temple School." Resources for American Literary Study 9 (1979): 200-05.

Stern, Madeleine B. "Mrs. Alcott of Concord to Mrs. Adams of Dubuque." New England Quarterly 50 (1977): 331-40.

Stoehr, Taylor. Nay Saying in Concord: Emerson, Alcott, and Thoreau. Hamden, CT: Shoe String (Archon), 1979.

Strickland, Charles. "A Transcendentalist Father: The Child Rearing Practices of Bronson Alcott." Perspectives in Amer. Hist. (1969): 3, 5, 73. (?)

Thurston, Michael. "Alcott's Doctrine of Human Culture." Concord Saunterer 19.2 (1987): 47-54.

Versluis, Arthur. "Bronson Alcott and Jacob Bohme." Studies in the American Renaissance (1993): 153-59.

Wagner, Frederick. "Eighty Six Letters (1814-1882) of A. Bronson Alcott (Part One)." Studies in the American Renaissance (1979): 239-308.

- - -. "Eighty Six Letters (1814-1882) of A. Bronson Alcott (Part two)." Studies in the American Renaissance (1980): 183-228.

Woodall, Guy R.. "Convers Francis and the Concordians: Emerson, Alcott, and Others." Concord Saunterer 1.1 (Fall 1993): 22-58.

- - -. "Early Worcester Literary Days: Emerson, Thoreau and Alcott Regarded as Just Freaks." Concord Saunterer 17.2 (Aug 1984): 3-6.

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Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 4: Early Nineteenth Century: Amos Bronson Alcott." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. WWW URL: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/alcott.html (provide page date or date of your login).  

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