The Journals of Bronson Alcott

by Odell Shepard (Editor), Amos Bronson Alcott

Selections from the journals of Amos Bronson Alcott which include insightful entries about Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow, Whitman, Hawthorne, etc.

559 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

Reviews

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This first volume of Bronson Alcott's selected journals gives insight not only into the Alcott household, or the literary and reform worlds of Boston and Concord, MA, but it gives a personal insight into the mind and heart of the man. Herein we can see the developments and changes in Alcott's social concerns from childhood psychology and education, to writing, utopia, philosophy, and abolitionism. As a man often criticized for this lack of practicality in providing for his family's needs, these pages revel the all-too human struggles of the man searching for his greater genius, pursuing idealism, and feeling the ways that he has failed his family.

[Susan Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading The Journals of Bronson Alcott. I was fascinated, stimulated and deeply moved. Let no one judge Bronson Alcott until they have done a thorough study of his life (which I have not yet done but I've been reading). This man is far more complex and cannot be summed up in a soundbite. He was a brilliant, original thinker, a lover of life and Spirit and a deeply flawed man. It's impossible to do a blog post on this book, there's just too much to ponder. I can only urge you to read for yourself and see what it offers. I can tell you it is the extraordinary evolution of a long and fruitful life with much penetrating commentary and insight on some of the most brilliant people of 19th century America.

[Maryellen Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this hoping to get some insight into Mr. Alcott's thinking. And to read a contemporary account of living through the Civil War. I was disappointed.

[┊ ♡ Cordelia ♡┊ · Rating 5 out of 5]

COMPLETED APRIL 2020. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

┊ BEAUTIFUL, KIND, HOPEFUL ┊ ♡

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

What an absolutely lovely read, & an absolutely lovely man. I’m not sure there’s a better way to spend one’s Spring 2020 Quarantine than under a spring air in 1840s Concord beside Bronson Alcott. I feel sad that he lost his zeal after Fruitlands. He had much to offer but scarce few who would listen. I like Odell Shepard’s suggestion in the Introduction to this book that in his later years Alcott came to appreciate the patience in nature: changes are not swift. Not great changes. “When a man’s own culture falls behind that of his time, he is conservative. When it outstrips and enables him to over-see his time, he is a reformer.” // “Consider how few persons you shall meet who are as sweet & sane as nature is. One quaffs health, courage, genius, and sanctity from that cup, and is never satiated with it.”

The journal doesn’t go far beyond Fruitlands, so I’m glad to be taking up the tale again in Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father. :)