Eden's Outcasts (69 page)

27.
L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1845,
Journals,
56.

28.
A. B. Alcott to Junius S. Alcott, Concord, 28 January 1845, in
Letters
, 119.

29.
Nathaniel Hawthorne to G. W. Curtis, Concord, 14 July 1852, in
Letters, 1843–1853
, 567.

30.
Ibid.

31.
Ibid.

32.
A. B. Alcott, 9 February 1847,
Journals
, 190.

33.
L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” in Shealy, ed.,
Alcott
, 36.

34.
L. M. Alcott, March 1846,
Journals
, 59.

35.
A. B. Alcott, 3 January 1846,
Journals
, 170.

36.
Stern,
Louisa May Alcott
, 46.

37.
Willis,
Alcott Memoirs
, 172.

38.
Edward W. Emerson, “When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl,” in Shealy, ed.,
Alcott
, 95.

39.
Stern,
Louisa May Alcott,
58.

40.
Edward W. Emerson, “When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl,” 94.

41.
A. B. Alcott, April 1846,
Journals
, 176.

42.
Thoreau,
Walden
, 43.

43.
Ibid., 259.

44.
Ibid.
,
260.

45.
Emerson, “Friendship,” in
Essays and Lectures
, 352.

46.
A. B. Alcott, 28 June 1846,
Journals
, 182.

47.
A. B. Alcott, 12 August and 18 October 1847,
Journals
, 196.

48.
Bedell,
Alcotts
, 251.

49.
L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 36.

50.
Ibid.

51.
Clara Gowing,
The Alcotts As I Knew Them,
in Shealy, ed.,
Alcott,
137.

52.
L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1845,
Journals
, 55–56.

53.
L. M. Alcott to Sophia Gardner, Concord, 23 September 1845, in
Selected Letters
, 4.

54.
Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 126; L. M. Alcott to Sophia Gardner, Concord, 23 September 1845, in
Selected Letters
, 4.

55.
Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 126–27; Saxton,
Louisa May
, 180.

56.
Bedell,
Alcotts
, 256.

57.
Thoreau to Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Saxton,
Louisa May
, 176.

58.
L. M. Alcott to Sophia Gardner, Concord, 23 September 1845, in
Selected Letters
, 4.

59.
Lydia Hosmer Wood, “Beth Alcott's Playmate: A Glimpse of Concord Town in the Days of
Little Women,
” in Shealy, ed.,
Alcott
, 165.

60.
L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1845,
Journals
, 57.

61.
L. M. Alcott to Maggie Lukens, 5 February 1884, in
Selected Letters
, 276.

62.
L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1845,
Journals
, 57.

63.
A. B. Alcott,
Sonnets
, 79.

64.
L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 35.

65.
Clark,
The Alcotts in Harvard
, 122.

66.
Willis,
Alcott Memoirs
, 181; Edward W. Emerson, “When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl,” 95; Cheney, ed.,
Louisa May Alcott
, 328.

67.
Cheney, ed.,
Louisa May Alcott
, 328.

68.
Anna Alcott, Journal, 1 September 1845, 3 September 1846, in Bonstelle, ed.,
Little Women Letters,
131, 133; L. M. Alcott, August 1850,
Journals
, 63.

69.
Wood, “Beth Alcott's Playmate,” 167.

70.
Bedell,
Alcotts
, 245.

71.
L. M. Alcott,
Little Women
,
Little Men, Jo's Boys
, 10.

72.
Anna Alcott Pratt, “A Foreword by Meg,” in Shealy, ed.,
Alcott
, 75; Wood, “Beth Alcott's Playmate,” 165.

73.
Edward W. Emerson, “When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl,” 92.

74.
A. B. Alcott to Anna, Louisa, Elizabeth, and May Alcott, Ham Common, 15 July 1842, in
Letters
, 83.

75.
A. B. Alcott, 6 October 1851,
Journals
, 254.

76.
A. B. Alcott, April 1846,
Journals
, 175.

77.
A. B. Alcott, March 1846,
Journals
, 173.

78.
L. M. Alcott, March 1846,
Journals
, 59.

79.
Stern,
Louisa May Alcott
, 57.

80.
Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 17 April 1845, in Bedell,
Alcotts
, 239.

81.
Abigail May Alcott, Diary, 24 November 1846, in Bedell,
Alcotts
, 239.

82.
A. B. Alcott, 16 March 1846,
Journals
, 173.

83.
L. M. Alcott,
Little Women
,
Little Men, Jo's Boys
, 89.

84.
A. B. Alcott, 16 March 1846,
Journals
, 173.

85.
Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 17 April 1845, in Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 123.

86.
A. B. Alcott,
Concord Days
, 46.

87.
Dahlstrand,
Amos Bronson Alcott
, 232.

88.
Ibid.

89.
Wood, “Beth Alcott's Playmate,” 167.

90.
Heilbrun,
Writing
, 64.

91.
A. B. Alcott, 13 May 1839,
Journals
, 128.

92.
Emerson,
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks
, VII, 539.

93.
L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 36.

94.
A. B. Alcott, Journal for 1848, 7 April, MS Am 1130.12(17), Houghton Library, Harvard University.

95.
Bedell,
Alcotts
, 272.

96.
L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 37.

97.
Ibid.

CHAPTER NINE: DESTITUTION

1.
A. B. Alcott to Louisa and May Alcott, Boston, 17 June 1849,
Letters
, 151.

2.
L. M. Alcott, May 1850,
Journals
, 61.

3.
Bedell,
Alcotts
, 282.

4.
L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1851,
Journals
, 65.

5.
A. B. Alcott,
Journals
, 198; Bedell,
Alcotts
, 272.

6.
L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” in Shealy, ed.,
Alcott
, 37.

7.
L. M. Alcott, August 1850,
Journals,
63.

8.
With gleaming sarcasm, Ellery Channing referred to Bronson's ever-increasing compendium of journals as the “
Encyclopédie de Moi-Même en Cent Volumes.
” Saxton,
Louisa May
, 189.

9.
L. M. Alcott, May 1850,
Journals
, 61, 62.

10.
Dahlstrand,
Amos Bronson Alcott,
221.

11.
L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 38.

12.
Ibid., 37.

13.
L. M. Alcott, July 1850,
Journals
, 63. Emphasis in original.

14.
L. M. Alcott, “Recollections of My Childhood,” 38.

15.
L. M. Alcott,
Little Women
,
Little Men, Jo's Boys
, 251–52.

16.
Dahlstrand,
Amos Bronson Alcott
, 228.

17.
Shepard,
Pedlar's Progress,
438.

18.
A. B. Alcott, Diary for 1850, 2 February, MS Am 1130.12(19), pp. 166–67, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

19.
Saxton,
Louisa May
, 178; Dahlstrand,
Amos Bronson Alcott
, 229.

20.
Taking the content of the poem at its word, Madelon Bedell has speculated that Alcott's demons indeed pursued him out of his home and that he spent some undetermined time wandering about Boston in a state of temporary derangement. Bedell,
Alcotts
, 299. Although other Alcott biographers have responded less literally to “The Return,” all agree that his work on “Tablets” brought on an almost total mental breakdown. Odell Shepard writes that Alcott's visions were so potent that they “nearly snatched him out of life as this world knows it.” Shepard,
Pedlar's Progress
, 442.

21.
A. B. Alcott, 30 June 1850,
Journals
, 231–32.

22.
A. B. Alcott, 13 July 1850,
Journals
, 232.

23.
A. B. Alcott to Abigail May Alcott, Concord, 17 September 1849, in
Letters
, 152.

24.
Ibid.

25.
Anonymous, “An Evening with Alcott,” in A. B. Alcott, Autobiographical Collections, 1868–71, MS Am 1130.11(7), p. 68, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

26.
Ibid.

27.
A. B. Alcott, Journal for 1837, Week VIII (February), MS Am 1130.12(10), p. 125, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

28.
Anonymous, “An Evening with Alcott,” 68.

29.
Ibid.

30.
Dahlstrand,
Amos Bronson Alcott
, 222.

31.
L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1850,
Journals
, 62.

32.
L. M. Alcott, “How I Went Out to Service,” in
Alternative Alcott
, 350.

33.
Ibid., 354.

34.
Ibid, 358.

35.
Richardson,
Emerson
, 112; Reynolds,
John Brown
, 208.

36.
A. B. Alcott, 4 April 1851,
Journals
, 244.

37.
L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1851,
Journals
, 65.

38.
Von Frank,
Trials
, 29.

39.
A. B. Alcott, 15 April 1851,
Journals
, 246.

40.
A. B. Alcott, 25 April 1851,
Journals
, 248.

41.
A. B. Alcott, 31 May 1851,
Journals
, 249.

42.
Abigail May Alcott to Samuel J. May, 28 April 1851 and 14 December 1852, in Bedell,
Alcotts
, 283.

43.
Abigail May Alcott, Diary, 4 April 1850, in Bedell,
Alcotts
, 276.

44.
L. M. Alcott, n.d. 1852,
Journals
, 67.

45.
Ibid.

46.
A. B. Alcott, Diary for 1850, 197.

47.
Anna Alcox, Diary, 26 April 1852, in Bedell,
Alcotts
, 315.