III. "The Alcotts"


Bronson Alcott


Louisa May Alcott
and read the program notes
 

Bronson Alcott (1799 – 1888)
Abigail May Alcott (1800 – 1877)
Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888)

If the dictagraph had been perfected in Bronson Alcott’s time, he might now be a great writer. As it is, he goes down as Concord’s greatest talker. 3
Bronson Alcott
Bronson Alcott was a Concord Transcendentalist involved in Emerson and Hawthorne’s circle. Though he was known as a great talker he did not leave much of a written legacy. Like Ives’ father, George, Bronson Alcott was an idealist who did not have much skill with some of the more practical necessities - “So it seems that his idealism had some substantial virtues, even if he couldn’t make a living.” 3 Also like George Ives, Bronson Alcott’s greatest legacy was his offspring. One member of the Alcott home, Bronson and Abigail’s daughter, was Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women and Little Men.

The “Alcotts” movement of the Concord is simpler and more consonant than the others, and is concerned with domestic life. Ives describes the life of the family living in Orchard House, “As one walks down the broad arched street- passing the white house of Emerson, ascetic guard of a former prophetic beauty- he comes presently beneath the old elms overspreading the Alcott house. 3 The movement opens with a paraphrase of Missionary Chant, simple and hymn-like as Ives described in the Essays, “the family hymns that were sung at the end of each day…” 3 Beethoven appears again, now as a part of the Alcotts’ rich family life, “and there sits the little old spinet piano Sophia Thoreau gave to the Alcott children, on which Beth played the old Scotch airs, and played at the Fifth Symphony. 3
Orchard House, Concord Massachusetts; Alcott Home

323 West 108th Street · New York, NY 10025 · (212) 663–6021 · Contact Us