Bronson Alcott Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Amos Bronson Alcott
OCCUPATION: Educator, Journalist, Poet
BIRTH DATE: c. November 29, 1799
DEATH DATE: c. March 04, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH: Wolcott

Best Known For

Amos Bronson Alcott, teacher, mystic, writer and the father of Louisa May Alcott, became an itinerant teacher before settling in Boston to found his own school.

Print Cite This

Amos Bronson Alcott

APA Style

Amos Bronson Alcott. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 04:07, May 25, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/bronson-alcott-9179505

Harvard Style

Amos Bronson Alcott [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/bronson-alcott-9179505, May 25

MLA Style

" Amos Bronson Alcott." 2012. Biography.com 25 May 2012, 04:07 http://www.biography.com/people/bronson-alcott-9179505

MHRA Style

' Amos Bronson Alcott', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/bronson-alcott-9179505 [accessed May 25, 2012]

Chicago Style

" Amos Bronson Alcott," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/bronson-alcott-9179505 (accessed May 25, 2012).

CBE/CSE Style

Amos Bronson Alcott [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 May 25]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/bronson-alcott-9179505.

Bluebook Style

Amos Bronson Alcott, http://www.biography.com/people/bronson-alcott-9179505 (last visited May 25, 2012).

AMA Style

Amos Bronson Alcott, http://www.biography.com/people/bronson-alcott-9179505 (last visited May 25, 2012).

Synopsis

Born near Wolcott, Connecticut in 1799, Amos Bronson Alcott found his own school in Boston in 1834. By this time he was a mystic and transcendentalist, and his radical ideas led to the failure of his school. After a trip to England where a school based on his theories had been set up, he returned to establish a Utopian community where he spent most of the rest of his life.

Profile

Teacher, mystic, and writer, born near Wolcott, Connecticut, USA. The father of Louisa May Alcott, he was largely self-educated and became an itinerant teacher (1823–33) before settling in Boston to found his own school (1834). By this time he was a mystic and transcendentalist, and his radical ideas of educating children, plus his acceptance of a black girl as a pupil, led to the failure of his school (1839). He settled in Concord, MA, but after a trip to England (1842), where a school (Alcott House) based on his theories had been set up, he returned to establish a utopian community, Fruitlands, outside Boston (1844). Devoted to vegetarianism as well as to high thinking, the community failed within eight months. He took his family back to Concord, and although he moved around to teach and lecture, he spent most of the rest of his life there, the centre of the transcendentalists. He was appointed superintendent of schools in Concord (1857), and is credited with several innovations, including the first parent–teacher association. The success of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868) gave the family financial security and allowed him to set up his Concord Summer School of Philosophy and Literature (1879). He wrote poetry, several books on his theories of education, a biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and an autobiography, but his greatest impact seems to have come through his personal presence and conversation.