In the annals of irresponsible utopianism, few names stand out like that of Bronson Alcott. This dreamy Nineteenth-century son of New England was a high-minded Transcendentalist and visionary instructor, and, as a husband and father, a horrible supplier. Bronson’s propensity to run up money owed and alienate supporters sank his younger household into poverty. Had it not been for the center and integrity of his spouse, Abigail, the couple’s 4 women would have starved. Had it not been for the busy and profitable pen of their second daughter, Louisa May, the Alcott household might need disappeared into the footnotes of historical past. As it’s, they continue to be a topic of fascination, for Louisa (1832-88) would produce not solely the novels “Little Women” (1868) and “Little Men” (1871) but additionally brief tales and good nonfiction sketches.
Louisa was 10 when her father dragged the household off to reside on sunshine and good vibes at a vegetarian commune that he co-founded with an exacting fellow traveler named Charles Lane. The experiment at Fruitlands, in rural Massachusetts, was nearly comically pious and frugal. (“Witty onlookers called its residents ‘fruitcakes,’ ” biographer Liz Rosenberg has written.) For seven months, a tiny band of idealists wearing brown linen dined on such spartan fare as unleavened bread, water and porridge.
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