Amos Bronson Alcott(1799–1888)

American educator, reformer, and leading figure in New England Transcendentalism, known for experimenting with progressive, dialogue-based teaching at Boston's Temple School, his role in the Concord intellectual circle (including work connected to The Dial), and co-founding the utopian community Fruitlands.

Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Library), Thoreau (see Thoreau's Reading & Library) & Alcott (see Alcott's Library)

1 title in the Cabinet

Conversations with Children on the Gospels

Full title: Conversations with children on the Gospels

The Dial's edition: Boston, 1836

Records of Alcott's experimental Socratic dialogues with children on spiritual matters, revealing his conviction that young minds possess intuitive access to divine truths—controversial in its time for treating children as philosophical interlocutors.

Full textSurvives at Houghton Library

Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Library), Thoreau (see Thoreau's Reading), Thoreau (see Thoreau's Library) & Alcott (see Alcott's Library)