American Bloomsbury Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work

by Cheever, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780743264624
• ISBN10: 0743264622
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-18
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

The 1850s were heady times in Concord, Massachusetts: in a town where a woman's petticoat drying on an outdoor line was enough to elicit scandal, some of the greatest minds of our nation's history were gathering in three of its wooden houses to establish a major American literary movement. The Transcendentalists, as these thinkers came to be called, challenged the norms of American society with essays, novels, and treatises whose beautifully rendered prose and groundbreaking assertions still resonate with readers today. Though noted contemporary author Susan Cheever stands in awe of the monumental achievements of such writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Louisa May Alcott, her personal, evocative narrative removes these figures from their dusty pedestals and provides a lively account of their longings, jealousies, and indiscretions. Thus, Cheever reminds us that the passion of Concord's ambitious and temperamental resident geniuses was by no means confined to the page....

Author Biography

Susan Cheever is the bestselling author of thirteen previous books, including five novels and the memoirs Note Found in a Bottle and Home Before Dark. Her work has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Boston Globe Winship Medal. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a member of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author's Guild Council. She teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. program. She lives in New York City with her family.

Table of Contents

A Note to the Reader	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Concord, Massachusetts	p. 3
The Alcotts Arrive for the First Time	p. 7
Louisa, Girl Interrupted	p. 12
Louisa in Love...Henry David Thoreau	p. 16
Sic Vita	p. 20
Two Loves	p. 24
Ellen Sewall	p. 29
Money	p. 32
Emerson Pays for Everything	p. 35
Two Deaths	p. 39
The Curse of Salem	p. 42
Hawthorne Emerges	p. 46
The Execution	p. 49
Another Triangle	p. 53
Bronson Alcott, Peddler Turned Pedant	p. 59
Fruitlands	p. 63
Sex	p. 68
Thoreau Goes to New York City	p. 71
Wall of Fire	p. 74
Walden Pond	p. 78
Margaret Fuller, the Sexy Muse	p. 81
Rome	p. 85
The Margaret Ghost	p. 89
Hawthorne Leaves Salem Forever	p. 91
Stockbridge	p. 95
Melville	p. 97
The Railroad	p. 101
Community	p. 104
Without Margaret	p. 106
Louisa May Alcott Returns	p. 113
Louisa in Boston	p. 116
Concord Again	p. 120
Walden, Walden	p. 123
Thoreau Now	p. 127
Leaving Walden	p. 130
The Birth and Death of Margaret Fuller	p. 135
Shipwreck	p. 139
The Hawthornes' Return to Concord	p. 144
President Frank	p. 149
Bayonets and Bullets	p. 154
Local Martyr	p. 159
The Death of Thoreau	p. 167
Louisa in Washington, D.C.	p. 170
Return and Illness	p. 175
Hawthorne Leaves Concord	p. 181
Death	p. 185
Little Women	p. 188
Emerson and the Fire	p. 193
Concord, Today	p. 198
Chronology	p. 201
Acknowledgments	p. 204
Notes	p. 206
Bibliography	p. 211
Index	p. 215
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