transcendentalism Alcott’s Fruitlands but collapsed in 1847 after six years of financial struggle, infighting, a disastrous fire, and a smallpox outbreak Located on a 200acre West Roxbury, Massachusetts, dairy farm, the “colony” was the brainchild of Unitarian minister George Ripley, his wife, Sophia, and other committed transcendentalists In the wake of 1837’s socially destructive U.S financial panic, ideas of economic self-sufficiency, the ennoblement of manual labor, and the in-gathering of likeminded intellectuals seemed especially appealing Brook Farm’s founders were also influenced by the social thought of Frenchman Charles Fourier, whose American adherents would eventually gain control of this experiment in group living Although Emerson was unenthusiastic about Ripley’s proposed “city of God,” planning proceeded apace in 1840–41 During a very cold and wet spring, the Ripleys and a dozen supporters—most lacking any agricultural experience whatsoever—took up residence at the farm In 1842 a school of collegepreparatory caliber was established at Brook Farm, attracting some of the cream of New England society as students and teachers The settlement quickly became a magnet for tourists, transcendentalists, and Fourierists, but its poor soil and inadequate financing, as well as a series of disasters, led to its demise As the community failed, George Ripley auctioned off his personal library in a vain effort to save the foundering utopian enterprise LITERARY RENAISSANCE Emerson immersed himself in the ideas, poetry, and literature of early 19th-century Europe, but he and other transcendentalists were also convinced that their countrymen and -women must and could create a uniquely American voice in all the arts, especially fiction and poetry Eventually, writers who were not always best sellers in their own time would be canonized by 20thcentury critics and are still considered among the most important the United States ever produced NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE An early settler and major investor in Brook Farm, Hawthorne was the descendant of Puritan elders, among them participants in the Salem witch trials In 1852, 10 years after he spent more than six months milking cows and spreading manure, he satirized Brook Farm in his novel The Blithedale Romance More important were novels such as The Scarlet Letter and short stories, including “Young Goodman Brown,” in 419 which Hawthorne examined darker aspects of theology and human behavior HERMAN MELVILLE A strong admirer and interpreter of Hawthorne’s work, Melville, a New Yorker, first gained notice as the writer of popular seafaring stories based on his own experiences His later stories and novels, including “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Benito Cereno, and Moby-Dick (dedicated to Hawthorne) were much bleaker, exploring issues of slavery, race, and madness before and after the Civil War His sales languished during his lifetime but were revived by positive critical attention in the 1920s and later WALT WHITMAN Born on a failing Long Island farm, Whitman was an itinerant teacher, printer, and editor whose poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, later much expanded, burst on the scene in 1855 “I greet you at the beginning of a great career,” Emerson wrote to the previously unknown poet days after its publication Emerson viewed Whitman as the ideal poet he had proposed in an 1844 essay An active opponent of slavery, Whitman used his poetry to mourn the violence of war as he nursed injured Union soldiers His poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed” lamented Abraham Lincoln’s assassination Whitman’s poetry celebrated ordinary men and women That, and his radical use of free verse—characterized by some as “barbaric yawp”—became key aspects of his truly “American” poetics ENDURING SIGNIFICANCE Always controversial in its own time, transcendentalism gained new respect and importance in the 20th century, as educators, literary critics, and social activists found in its teachings and experiments new energy and new lessons for the United States and other societies In Thoreau, such social critics as Mohandas K Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and American anti-Vietnam war protestors found inspiration and justification for their opposition to colonialism, racism, and arrogant political power Educational programs that seem to borrow from the child-centered focus of Alcott and others have met both praise and scorn in America and Europe Emersonian concepts of self-reliance and personal fulfillment, sometimes credited with improving American public life, have also been blamed for encouraging a “culture of narcissism.” Transcendentalism continues to transcend its own historical place and time