Great Minds in Concord

My 99th Posting! Thank you for following my Blog, dear Readers.

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Do you recognize the home of Little Women? Louisa May Alcott was the successful author who sold one million copies of her books during her lifetime. She lived here at Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts.

Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents, grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

It's so dreadful to be poor! sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all, added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

We've got Father and Mother, and each other, said Beth contentedly from her corner.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, We haven't got Father, and shall not have him for a long time. She didn't say perhaps never, but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.

Nobody spoke for a minute; then Meg said in an altered tone, You know the reason Mother proposed not having any presents this Christmas was because it is going to be a hard winter for everyone; and she thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when our men are suffering so in the army.

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

The Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts is a National Historic Landmark lived in by American Literary figures Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and the short story collections; Mosses from an Old Manse and Twice-Told Tales lived here from 1852 until 1870 and gave it the name by which it is still known.

While The Wayside is best known as the only home Hawthorne ever owned and the place where he wrote his last works, it has also been the home of several noteworthy women. The Wayside, called "Hillside" by the Alcott family, was one the childhood homes of Louisa May Alcott, the author of the 1868 classic Little Women. Louisa lived here with her parents and three sisters from April 1845 to November 1848 during her early teenage years.

The Wayside barn, which today serves as a Visitor Center and exhibit area, was used by the Alcott girls to stage the plays that were created when they lived at "Hillside"; including "Roderigo" from Little Women. The Wayside exhibit and tour make note of the many events that occurred at "Hillside" that are recalled in Little Women; as well as real life experiences that the Alcott family had here, such as their sheltering of a fugitive slave in early 1847.

The Wayside, a stone's throw from Orchard House, is closed for restoration until 2015.

"The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. She was lady-like, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace, which is now recognized as its indication. And never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady-like, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison."

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

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The Old Manse

The first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired nearby – and, less than a century later, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau spawned a revolution in American philosophy from here.

Built in 1770 for patriot minister William Emerson, The Old Manse, a National Historic Landmark, became the center of Concord’s political, literary, and social revolutions over the course of the next century. In the mid-19th-century, leading Transcendentalists such as Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller discussed the issues of the day here, with the Hawthorne and Ripley families.

From upstairs, you can look out over the North Bridge, where the famous battle of April 19, 1775, took place.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne both called the Manse home for a time – and each found inspiration here. Emerson would draft his famous essay “Nature” from an upstairs room, and Hawthorne would write a tribute to the homestead called Mosses from an Old Manse.

Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia, started their married life here, and you can still see the poems they wrote to each other, etched on the Manse’s window panes. The heirloom vegetable garden, which has been recreated today, was originally planted by Henry David Thoreau in honor of the Hawthornes’ wedding.

While Ralph Waldo Emerson was preparing to marry Lydia Jackson (who he called "Lidian"), he told her he could not live in her home town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. "Plymouth is streets", he wrote to her, "I live in the wide champaign."

He had previously lived in Concord at The Old Manse, the Emerson family home, and hoped to return to that town. In July 1835, he wrote in his journal, "I bought my house and two acres six rods of land of John T. Coolidge for 3,500 dollars."He and Jackson married on September 14 and moved into the home the next day, along with his mother.

Emerson remained in the house for the rest of his life. In it he wrote his famous essays "The American Scholar" and "Self Reliance". He also entertained a host of notable neighbors and visitors including Bronson and Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau. Beginning in July 1836, the home hosted the meetings of the Transcendental Club.

Now Emerson's study is in the museum across the street.

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

Emerson's study.

The Great Minds in Concord Museum.

More Great Minds at Thoreau's house on Walden Pond.

Walden Pond - still beautiful.

Recent tributes to Thoreau - still loved.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The shot heard 'round the world

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson's words are engraved on this monument at North Bridge.

The first battle of the American Revolution began at dawn, April 19, 1775, with a one-sided British victory in Lexington. 8 militiamen were killed and 10 wounded. It ended that evening with the British Regulars fighting for their lives on the road to Boston against nearly 4,000 Colonial militiamen.

This is the Common outside the Lexington Visitor Center where the eight militiamen were killed by British soldiers.

Inside the gift shop were these costumes for sale.

Along the trail in Minute Man National Park between Lexington and Concord is the grave of British soldiers who died April 17, 1775.

We walked to the North Bridge outside of Concord where the British Regulars turned and fled when they saw the resolve of the militiamen.

Walking along the path that leads from Boston through Cambridge to Lexington and Concord, I thought a bicycle would be a good idea.

A multi-media production in the Visitor Center narrated from the voice of an actual artist who watched the events of the day and drew pictures, an early version of photojournalism, is impressive.

Later we went to Bunker Hill in Boston where the next battle of the Revolution took place.

Emily Dickinson & the Five Colleges

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –

At Emily Dickinson's (1830-1886) Amherst, Massachusetts home there is a light that is kept on in her upstairs bedroom in honor of the evenings she would work there writing poems.

While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality.

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a Human soul.

During the 1850s, Emily's strongest and most affectionate relationship was with Susan Gilbert. Emily eventually sent her over three hundred letters, more than to any other correspondent, over the course of their friendship. Sue married Emily's brother in 1856. Edward Dickinson built a house for himself and Sue called the Evergreens, which stood on the west side of the Homestead.

In 1862 Emily wrote to Mr. Higginson's for his view of her work:

Mr Higginson,
Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?
The Mind is so near itself – it cannot see, distinctly – and I have none to ask –
Should you think it breathed – and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude –
If I make the mistake – that you dared to tell me – would give me sincerer honor – toward you –
I enclose my name – asking you, if you please – Sir – to tell me what is true?
That you will not betray me – it is needless to ask – since Honor is it's own pawn –

Emily is buried with her family in the town cemetery.

The Outlet

My river runs to thee:
Blue sea, wilt welcome me?

My river waits reply.
Oh sea, look graciously!

I'll fetch thee brooks
From spotted nooks,—

Say, sea,
Take me!

In western Massachusetts where i was traveling there was a consortium of five campuses, 2,200 faculty members and 30,000 students in that included these institutions: Amherst College. Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and UMass Amherst.

I read that Mt. Holyoke was very beautiful so I drove by there and this is what I saw.

Sunday morning I went downtown Northampton where Smith College is located, and attended a Unitarian Society service in this dignified old building.

This is the brand new Sojourner Truth statue that was just dedicated in nearby Florence, Massachusetts.

Notice the flag - for Memorial Day.

I was in Atkins Farms Country Market - like a Whole Foods, but local and less expensive, when I saw this sign.
I think those fire-and -brimstone preachers from the 17th century still have their influence on Massachusetts Colony!

Age of Innocence

“Ah, good conversation - there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.”
― Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. In addition to novels, Wharton wrote at least 85 short stories. She was also a garden designer, interior designer, and taste-maker of her time.

In 1902 she built The Mount, her estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, which survives today as an example of her design principles. There, Edith Wharton wrote several of her novels, including The House of Mirth (1905), the first of many chronicles of the nature of old New York, and entertained the cream of American literary society, including her close friend, the novelist Henry James.

The Age of Innocence (1920) won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, making Wharton the first woman to win the award.

Wharton was friend and confidante to many gifted intellectuals of her time: Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau and André Gide were all guests of hers at one time or another. Theodore Roosevelt, Bernard Berenson, and Kenneth Clark were valued friends as well.

"THE VILLAGE lay under two feet of snow, with drifts at the windy corners. In a sky of iron the points of the Dipper hung like icicles and Orion flashed his cold fires. The moon had set, but the night was so transparent that the white house-fronts between the elms looked gray against the snow, clumps of bushes made black stains on it, and the basement windows of the church sent shafts of yellow light far across the endless undulations."

-Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome

"From the table at which they had been lunching two American ladies of ripe but well-cared-for middle age moved across the lofty terrace of the Roman restaurant and, leaning on its parapet, looked first at each other, and then down on the outspread glories of the Palatine and the Forum, with the same expression of vague but benevolent approval.

As they leaned there a girlish voice echoed up gaily from the stairs leading to the court below. "Well, come along, then," it cried, not to them but to an invisible companion, "and let's leave the young things to their knitting," and a voice as fresh laughed back: "Oh, look here, Babs, not actually knitting—" "Well, I mean figuratively," rejoined the first. "After all, we haven't left our poor parents much else to do.. . ." At that point the turn of the stairs engulfed the dialogue.

The two ladies looked at each other again, this time with a tinge of smiling embarrassment, and the smaller and paler one shook her head and colored slightly."

-Edith Wharton, Roman Fever (My favorite short story by E.W.)

Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on Jan. 24, 1862. Her father was George Frederick Jones; her mother was the former Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander, and back of each were Colonial and Revolutionary ancestors. When she was 4 the family went abroad in pursuit of culture, health and economy, for her father's inherited funds had not increased during the Civil War that was just ended.

Her early impressions were the international--New York and Newport, Rome, Paris and Madrid. Added to this was a vivid imagination, which found outlet in story telling even before she could read. In keeping with the sheltered life of the time, she was never sent to school, but was taught at home. She began writing short stories in her early teens, but they were never about "real people." Little happened to the real people she knew; what did "happen" was generally not talked about.

- NY Times obituary, 1937

The house and grounds are evocative of Wharton's work. This author opened the world of the rich and priviledged to the world through her novels and short stories..

Edith and Henry James, enjoyed motoring through the countryside together. She first met Henry James in the late 1880s, but they did not become friends until after 1900. He was a famous author nearing the end of his brilliant career but with the masterpieces of his last period yet to come. She was at the beginning of hers.

Zane Grey & Moby Dick

My last stop in Pennsylvania was Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, on the shores of the beautiful Upper Delaware River. I arrived late afternoon, just before a downpour, and stayed on the porch of Zane Grey's house while it rained.

Zane's wife Dolly who he met in 1900, believed in Zane's writing ability which led him to continue writing despite rejection by the publishers. In 1910, Harper & Brothers published "The Heritage of the Desert", Grey's first western novel and his first real success. "Riders of the Purple Sage" was published in 1912.

I could see why Zane loved this area.

Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, and Benito Cereno and Bartleby, lived not too far away in the area of Massachusetts called the Berkshires. Arrowhead, his historic home is at 780 Holmes Rd., Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

When I arrived the historical society was there sprucing up for the next day opening, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. At least I could buy my t shirt in the gift shop: Call me Ishmael!

In the summer of 1850, seeking a reprieve from the heat and noise of New York City, Herman Melville brought his young family to Pittsfield, a place he had visited since childhood. Flush with success of his first books and entranced by a supportive new friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville bought this farm and named it Arrowhead.

That winter, in his study with its view of Mt. Greylock, he wrote his masterpiece, Moby Dick.

That is me with my new shirt next to the fine lady, Sojourner Truth.

Martin Guitar Company

There are so many interesting places in Pennsylvania including the Martin Guitar Company.

I went to Nazareth, Pennsylvania in eastern Pennsylvania to take a free tour of the factory of the finest guitar made anywhere. More than 200 guitars are made at Martin each day, many more than when the company first opened in New York City in 1833 (it moved to Nazareth in 1839).

Mr. Martin himself happened to be in attendance that day - in the pink shirt.

These are the tables in the entry hall lobby.

This is part of a very large display of the famous artists who have played and recorded on Martin guitars including Dylan, Young, Stephen Stills and Robbie Robertson.

The tour started with discussions and descriptions of types of wood — the tops are usually made with spruce, the sides and backs with mahogany and rosewood — and ended with a look at a few finished instruments. We had on earphones so we could hear the tour guide speak as we toured through the factory.

We watched Martin employees soak wood so it could be bent into the sides of guitars; use clothespins to glue the interior linings; smooth frets; and stain bodies.

Prices for the factory-made guitars range from $299 to many thousands of dollars. The most popular Martin model, the D-28, retails for $2,849. And Martin still makes custom guitars that can cost more than $100,000.

Our tour guide has worked there for a long time and knows everyone.

Notice those clothes pins?

Shapers.

Glue and tape.

Refining.

I wanted to stop and watch but we had to keep moving.

After the tour we played expensive guitars in the soundproof room. Fun!

Time to leave but nice to know this company is thriving. People still love fine musical instruments.