Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Alcott, Amos Bronson

686005Collier's New Encyclopedia — Alcott, Amos Bronson

ALCOTT, AMOS BRONSON, an American philosophical writer and educator, one of the founders of the transcendental school of philosophy in New England; born at Wolcott, Conn., Nov. 29, 1799. From 1834-1837 his private school in Boston, conducted on the plan of adapting the instruction to the individuality of each pupil, attracted attention. He was on terms of friendship with Emerson, Hawthorne, Channing, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller. After 1840 he lived in Concord, Mass., and was the projector and dean of the Concord School of Philosophy. Lectures on speculative and practical subjects occupied his later years. His chief works are “Orphic Sayings,” contributed to the “Dial” (1840); “Tablets” (1868); “Concord Days” (1872); “Table-Talk” (1877); “Sonnets and Canzonets” (1882); “Ralph Waldo Emerson, His Character and Genius” (1882); “New Connecticut” (1886). He died in Boston, March 4, 1888.