Day Four
PEI Day Four
Monday morning found us rolling quickly out of bed as we had one day only to search out the best corners of Concord. Famous for the battle of Lexington and Concord where “the shot heard round the world” was first fired, Concord was also a rich center for new ideas and highly driven dreamers in the middle of the nineteenth century. The writers who came from Concord shaped the ideas of their days, and thus, had a direct effect on our own.
The first home we visited was Orchard House, the home where Louisa May Alcott wrote her much-loved classic Little Women. It is one of the most satisfying author’s homes I have ever visited as it is kept by people who love the Alcotts and their legacy, and is filled with the personal belongings of the Alcotts themselves. A friendly, brown old house, it sits slightly back from the road, hedged by a cozy cottage garden, shaded by imposing old firs and oaks and full of a settled charm.
Each room in the house seemed to have retained the individuality of its original owners; Louisa’s room was set up exactly as she had it; with her various portraits of owls (she always loved them) done by her artist sister, her books, and a little desk her father had built for her when they moved into the house. May’s room (the Amy of Little Women) is covered in sketches that she drew right on the wall before Louisa earned enough money to have her sent to Europe. The family parlor evidences musical evening and books for discussions, as well as classical art in many corners.
Interestingly though, one of the most fascinating rooms to me was the study of Bronson Alcott, Louisa’s father. To really appreciate the beauty of Louisa May’s stories, you have to understand the visionary family in which she was raised and the intellectual atmosphere in which she thought and wrote. Hers was a truly remarkable family.
Bronson Alcott was, among many other things, an idealist and teacher with a passion to reform education. He and his family believed in drawing as close to God as possible, they believed in pursuing the beauty of nature, art, music and literature, they believed in serving the people around them, and each of these ideals translated in to Bronson Alcott’s ideas about school. I glanced at a list of standards he had established for teachers and one of the first on the list was this: “All teaching shall be done in view of the Eternal”. He and his family were fierce abolitionists as well, many houses in Concord being stops on the Underground Railroad. Louisa grew up being taught by Bronson and his equally passionate wife Abba Alcott. Her stories reflect her family’s ideals and as I toured the study with its rows of books and papers, its art and notebooks, I was excited by the story of this family who believed so strongly in their ideals and set out to influence their world through their writing. Sounds like something I’d like to do!
The rest of the day was a continual building on that idea, with visits to Thoreau’s Walden Pond, the home of Emerson and lastly, for comfort, a cup of coffee in the town square. The beauty of the town in at the height of autumn is startling as well, the trees are so rich in their fall colors, the fields so long and golden. It’s easy to understand why Thoreau believed so powerfully in nature as a means of coming close to God and ideals. It certainly brought me close. As we drove home, I reflected on this small town, full of passionate-hearted dreamers who believed so powerfully in what they knew in their hearts that their writing and ideas influence us to this day. It was a good beginning for me as I write.
Monday morning found us rolling quickly out of bed as we had one day only to search out the best corners of Concord. Famous for the battle of Lexington and Concord where “the shot heard round the world” was first fired, Concord was also a rich center for new ideas and highly driven dreamers in the middle of the nineteenth century. The writers who came from Concord shaped the ideas of their days, and thus, had a direct effect on our own.
The first home we visited was Orchard House, the home where Louisa May Alcott wrote her much-loved classic Little Women. It is one of the most satisfying author’s homes I have ever visited as it is kept by people who love the Alcotts and their legacy, and is filled with the personal belongings of the Alcotts themselves. A friendly, brown old house, it sits slightly back from the road, hedged by a cozy cottage garden, shaded by imposing old firs and oaks and full of a settled charm.
Each room in the house seemed to have retained the individuality of its original owners; Louisa’s room was set up exactly as she had it; with her various portraits of owls (she always loved them) done by her artist sister, her books, and a little desk her father had built for her when they moved into the house. May’s room (the Amy of Little Women) is covered in sketches that she drew right on the wall before Louisa earned enough money to have her sent to Europe. The family parlor evidences musical evening and books for discussions, as well as classical art in many corners.
Interestingly though, one of the most fascinating rooms to me was the study of Bronson Alcott, Louisa’s father. To really appreciate the beauty of Louisa May’s stories, you have to understand the visionary family in which she was raised and the intellectual atmosphere in which she thought and wrote. Hers was a truly remarkable family.
Bronson Alcott was, among many other things, an idealist and teacher with a passion to reform education. He and his family believed in drawing as close to God as possible, they believed in pursuing the beauty of nature, art, music and literature, they believed in serving the people around them, and each of these ideals translated in to Bronson Alcott’s ideas about school. I glanced at a list of standards he had established for teachers and one of the first on the list was this: “All teaching shall be done in view of the Eternal”. He and his family were fierce abolitionists as well, many houses in Concord being stops on the Underground Railroad. Louisa grew up being taught by Bronson and his equally passionate wife Abba Alcott. Her stories reflect her family’s ideals and as I toured the study with its rows of books and papers, its art and notebooks, I was excited by the story of this family who believed so strongly in their ideals and set out to influence their world through their writing. Sounds like something I’d like to do!
The rest of the day was a continual building on that idea, with visits to Thoreau’s Walden Pond, the home of Emerson and lastly, for comfort, a cup of coffee in the town square. The beauty of the town in at the height of autumn is startling as well, the trees are so rich in their fall colors, the fields so long and golden. It’s easy to understand why Thoreau believed so powerfully in nature as a means of coming close to God and ideals. It certainly brought me close. As we drove home, I reflected on this small town, full of passionate-hearted dreamers who believed so powerfully in what they knew in their hearts that their writing and ideas influence us to this day. It was a good beginning for me as I write.
posted by Sarah at 10:13 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home