Fruitlands : the Alcott family and their search for utopia / by Richard Francis.
Francis, Richard, 1945-
2010
HX656.F78 F73 2010 (Mapit)
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Title Fruitlands : the Alcott family and their search for utopia / by Richard Francis.
Author Francis, Richard, 1945-
ISBN 9780300140415 (alk. paper)
030014041X (alk. paper)
Publication Details New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, c2010.
Language English
Description viii, 321 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm.
Call Number HX656.F78 F73 2010
Dewey Decimal Classification 307.7709744/3
Summary This is a definitive account of Fruitlands, one of history's most unsuccessful, but most significant, utopian experiments. It was established in Massachusetts in 1843 by Bronson Alcott (whose ten year old daughter Louisa May, future author of Little Women, was among the members) and an Englishman called Charles Lane, under the watchful gaze of Emerson, Thoreau, and other New England intellectuals. Alcott and Lane developed their own version of the doctrine known as Transcendentalism, hoping to transform society and redeem the environment through a strict regime of veganism and celibacy. But physical suffering and emotional conflict, particularly between Lane and Alcott's wife, Abigail, made the community unsustainable. Drawing on the letters and diaries of those involved, the author explores the relationship between the complex philosophical beliefs held by Alcott, Lane, and their fellow idealists and their day to day lives. The result is a vivid and often very funny narrative of their travails, demonstrating the dilemmas and conflicts inherent to any utopian experiment and shedding light on a fascinating period of American history.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
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The Seed
To reproduce perfect men
Now I know what thought is
A joy in a winding sheet
Fabling of worlds
Rembrandt's pot
The Fruit
Hesitations at the plunge
The mind yields, falters, and fails
The little wicket gate
The principle of inverse ratio
Diffusive illitimable benevolence
The new waves curl
Utter subjection of the body
The consociate family life
Penniless pilgrimages
Softly doth the sun descend
Nectar in a sieve
Cain and Abel
Tumbledown Hall.

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