Marmee & Louisa (57 page)

⁴²³
return to peddling: ABA to his mother, December 28, 1839,
Letters
, 44.

⁴²⁴
“Dr. Charles Windship”: either Abigail’s nephew, Charles May Windship, who was thirty in 1839, or his father, Charles Williams Windship, who lived until 1852.

⁴²⁵
“Be a good Girl”: ABA to LMA, December 1839,
Letters
, 45.

⁴²⁶
Wordsworth’s influence on ABA: See ABA’s published journals and Brooks,
Flowering of New England
, 232.

⁴²⁷
“Abba does all”: ABA to his mother, June 21, 1840,
Letters
, 48.

⁴²⁸
“poetical wardrobe”: Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 71.

⁴²⁹
“I have planted myself”: ABA to SJM, April 6, 1840,
Letters
, 47.

⁴³⁰
“time of Public Favor”: ABA to SJM, August 10, 1840,
Letters
, 52–53.

⁴³¹
“Two [children] make peace”: ABA to AAP, May 14, 1841,
Letters
, 56.

⁴³²
“step lightly”: ABA to LMA, June 21, 1840,
Letters
, 49.

⁴³³
Abby May: The baby was not actually named for several months, according to AAP’s diary entry of November 8, 1840: “We are going to name the baby Abby, after Mother.”

⁴³⁴
teenage nieces: Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 73.

⁴³⁵
“anxious housewife”: ABA to SJM, August 10, 1840, Letters, 53. ABA seems to quote AMA.

⁴³⁶
“a noble horse”: AMA, journals, HAP.

⁴³⁷
“golden bees”: Emerson to Margaret Fuller, August 12, 1842,
Letters of Emerson
, 81.

⁴³⁸
“gee and haw”: AMA, journals, HAP.

⁴³⁹
“let the old man go”:
Memoir of SJM
, 215.

⁴⁴⁰
Colonel May’s estate: equivalency based on the Nominal GDP per capita, rather than the Consumer Price Index, for the year 2000.

⁴⁴¹
Louisa Caroline Greenwood, born in 1810, married George W. Bond in 1843. She was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Greenwood, who performed AMA and ABA’s wedding in 1830. LMA and her sisters called her “Aunt Bond.”

⁴⁴²
Marital law: Samuel E. Sewall, “Legal Condition of Women in Massachusetts in 1886,”
Memoir of SES
, 133–34.

⁴⁴³
“beautiful little girl”: Cheney,
LMA Life, Letters and Journals
, 18.

⁴⁴⁴
“Do write a little”: AMA to LMA, c. 1846, quoted in Stern,
From Blood & Thunder
, 255.

⁴⁴⁵
“had no patience”: Caroline W. Healey Dall,
Margaret and Her Friends: Or, Ten Conversations with Margaret Fuller upon the Mythology of the Greeks and Its Expression in Art
, xiii. Dall cites a letter c.1840 from Fuller to ABA rejecting a submission to the Transcendental journal she edited,
The Dial
: “The break of your spirit in the crag of the actual makes surf and foam but leaves no gem behind. Yet it is a great wave, Mr. Alcott.”

⁴⁴⁶
“model children”: LMA, “Recollections of My Childhood,”
Lulu’s Library
, xiii.

⁴⁴⁷
another depression: Joan von Mehren,
Minerva and the Muse
, 155.

⁴⁴⁸
“dreadful nervous excitation”: AMA to SJM, January 1842, family letters, HAP.

⁴⁴⁹
“men icebergs”: AMA, Memoir of 1878, HAP.

⁴⁵⁰
a “fine house”: ABA to Junius Alcott, September 28, 1841,
Letters
, 57.

⁴⁵¹
Bronson convinced: Herrnstadt,
ABA Letters
, footnote, 62.

⁴⁵²
“Here are my wife”: ABA to Junius Alcott, February 19, 1842,
Letters
, 61.

⁴⁵³
“I will hope all things”: AMA, May 7, 9, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 142. The Biblical reference is 1 Cor. 13:7.

⁴⁵⁴
“my husband’s wardrobe”: AMA, April 1, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 141.

⁴⁵⁵
ABA’s trunk: ABA to AMA, May 7, 1842,
Letters
, 64.

⁴⁵⁶
“weight of responsibility”: AMA to SJM, June 22, 1833, family letters 1828–1861, HAP.

⁴⁵⁷
“trembling hand”: AMA, May 7, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 142.

⁴⁵⁸
“sick and sad”: AMA, ibid. The Biblical reference is Isa. 10:13.

⁴⁵⁹
“second nuptial eve”: ABA to AMA, May 7, 1842,
Letters
, 64. Bronson never fulfilled this promise of a second wedding ceremony on his return from England.

⁴⁶⁰
“Some flowers”: AMA, May 22, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 142–43.

⁴⁶¹
no communication: Shepard,
ABA Journals
, 139.

⁴⁶²
“greeted by friends”: AMA, June 20, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 143.

⁴⁶³
“younger disciple”: Matteson,
Eden’s Outcasts
, 101.

⁴⁶⁴
“new plantation”: ABA to Junius Alcott, June 30, 1842,
Letters
, 74.

⁴⁶⁵
“too crowded up”: AMA, July 8, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 143.

⁴⁶⁶
“swift duty”: AMA, July 8, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 143.

⁴⁶⁷
“Domestic life”: AMA, November 20, 1844, journal fragments, HAP.

⁴⁶⁸
“the joy I feel”: AMA, July 26, 1842, in
Journals ABA
, 145.

⁴⁶⁹
Depressive tendencies of LMA, AMA: AMA, Memoir of 1878, HAP.

⁴⁷⁰
“whether my capabilities”: AMA, September 8, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 147.

⁴⁷¹
“must be benefited”: AMA, June 18, 1842, Memoir of 1878, HAP.

⁴⁷²
“moved and embarrassed”: Margaret Fuller journals (FJ 42–1, 328), in von Mehren,
Minerva and the Muse
, 157.

⁴⁷³
“ready at any moment”: Emerson, March 1842,
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks
, VIII, 211–15.

⁴⁷⁴
“dear English-men”: AMA, July 8, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 143. AMA quotes ABA’s letter on Lane’s intellect.

⁴⁷⁵
Lane’s library and family: Richard Francis,
Fruitlands
, 93.

⁴⁷⁶
“why am I so happy?”: AMA, November 29, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 148.

⁴⁷⁷
“I wished to breathe”: AMA, October 23, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 148.

⁴⁷⁸
“occasional hilarity”: AMA, November 29, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 148.

⁴⁷⁹
coverture: I am grateful for Cynthia Barton, author of
Transcendental Wife
, for introducing me to this legal concept, in conversation in 2009.

⁴⁸⁰
“profligate and idle”: Margaret Fuller,
Woman in the Nineteenth Century
.

⁴⁸¹
“traditional patriarchal view”: Nancy Theriot,
Mothers & Daughters in Nineteenth-century America
, 34.

⁴⁸²
Bronson expected his wife: Herrnstadt,
ABA Letters
, xxxi.

⁴⁸³
“race of murderers”: ABA, 1835,
Journals
, 115.

⁴⁸⁴
typical feast: AMA, January 22, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 151.

⁴⁸⁵
“not favorably situated”: AMA, August 22, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 146.

⁴⁸⁶
“disrelish of cooking”: AMA, November 29, 1842, in
Journals ABA
, 148.

⁴⁸⁷
contentious questions: ABA’s biographer Theodore Dahlstrand said in 2010 Orchard House School of Philosophy lecture, “Bronson hated controversy and disliked being contradicted or having objections raised. He disliked when Garrison, Parker, or Pillsbury attended his lectures, because they were disputatious and confrontational. In one Buffalo, New York, conversation that former president Millard Fillmore and a congressman attended, Bronson felt useless because the politicians just wanted to debate. A good conversation, in his view, went ‘two and a half hours and nobody [but him] said anything.’”

⁴⁸⁸
“I live, my dear”: ABA to LMA, November 29, 1842,
Letters
, 93.

⁴⁸⁹
“the pencil-case I promised”: AMA to LMA, November 29, 1842, Cheney,
LMA Life, Letters and Journals
, 23.

⁴⁹⁰
“safety valve”: AMA, in Cynthia Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 126.

⁴⁹¹
“may this pen”: AMA, ibid., 128.

⁴⁹²
“arduous and involved”: AMA, December 24, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 148.

⁴⁹³
“recreation”: AMA, August 22, 1842, ibid., 146.

⁴⁹⁴
“for some weeks”: ABA to Junius, December 26, 1842, quoting AMA,
ABA Letters
, 94. AMA’s diary for that week indicates she took only William Lane and Louisa with her to Boston.

⁴⁹⁵
“Distance and absence”: ABA to Junius Alcott, December 26, 1842,
Letters
, 95.

⁴⁹⁶
“quite electrified”: Francis,
Fruitlands
, 113–114. The observer was Charles Lane and the speaker on education was Henry Wright.

⁴⁹⁷
“perfect trust”: AMA, January 18, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 150.

⁴⁹⁸
“practical philosophy”: AMA, November 29, 1842, in
ABA Journals
, 148–150.

⁴⁹⁹
children’s journals: Anna’s extant journals began in 1839, when she was eight. There are no extant journals by Louisa before summer 1843, when she was ten.

⁵⁰⁰
“healing all differences”: AMA, January 15, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 150.

⁵⁰¹
“notes of reconciliation”: AMA, January 23, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 151.

⁵⁰²
celibacy: Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 86–87.

⁵⁰³
“overthrow”: AMA, January 22, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 151.

⁵⁰⁴
invited black parishioners: Karcher,
First Woman in the Republic
, 199.

⁵⁰⁵
employed by Horace Mann: Herrnstadt,
ABA Letters
, 51, footnote.

⁵⁰⁶
“little debts”: AMA, March 6, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 152.

⁵⁰⁷
“quite at a loss”: AMA, March 6, 1843, Diary for 1841–1844, HAP.

⁵⁰⁸
disillusionment: Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 85.

⁵⁰⁹
Emerson on ABA: Capper,
Margaret Fuller, An American Romantic Life: The Public Years
, 10. Emerson quotations are from his letter to Margaret Fuller, May 8, 1840,
Emerson’s Letters
, II, 94.

⁵¹⁰
“Alcott on the 17th October”: Emerson,
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks
, VIII, 210–12.

⁵¹¹
“eventful years”: AMA, June 1, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 152.

⁵¹²
“DEAR LOUIE”: AMA, March 12, 1843, family letters, HAP.

⁵¹³
“I hope that soon”: LMA, 1843, Cheney, ed.,
LMA’s Life, Letters and Journals
, 23–24.

⁵¹⁴
“our little territory”: AMA, June 1, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 152. Details derive from this journal entry.

⁵¹⁵
“This dell is the canvas”: ABA to Junius Alcott, June 18, 1843,
Letters
, 103.

⁵¹⁶
“prove a happy home”: AMA, June 1, 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 152.

⁵¹⁷
to visit Fruitlands: AMA to SJM, July 1843, family letters, HAP.

⁵¹⁸
a hymn: The 64th hymn in J. W. Frothingham’s
Universal Hymns
, Boston, 1894.

⁵¹⁹
“Her pride is not yet”: William Lane to William Oldham, 1843, quoted in Francis,
Fruitlands
, 110. See also Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 95.

⁵²⁰
sleep apart: Barton,
Transcendental Wife
, 94–97. According to Barton, Lane “threatened [AMA’s] very marriage . . . Lane was urging [ABA] to renounce the bondage of matrimony, leave his family, and join him in uniting with the Shakers.”

⁵²¹
he “forcibly illustrated”: AMA, July 1843, in
ABA Journals
, 153.

⁵²²
threat to her marriage: Many scholars suggest that Bronson and Lane’s relationship had a “homoerotic underpinning,” as Richard Francis wrote in
Fruitlands
, 246. Other scholars who infer a homoerotic attachment between Bronson and Lane are Madelon Bedell, Frederick Dahlstrand, Harriet Reisen, and John Matteson. It is difficult to judge past intimacies by modern standards, however, and there is no actual evidence of a sexual relationship between the men.

⁵²³
“Lane was a subversive”: Ronald Bosco, Summer Conversations, School of Philosophy, Orchard House, July 2009.