num_pages: 344
description: This is the first definitive account of Fruitlands one of historys most unsuccessfulbut most significantutopian 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 conflictparticularly between Lane and Alcotts wife Abigailmade the community unsustainable.Drawing on the letters and diaries of those involved Richard Francis 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.
language: English
title: Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia
publisher: Yale University Press