Alcott, A: Concord Days

American philosopher, essayist, and Transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott's Concord Days was originally published in 1872. Concord Days was one of Alcott's most popular works and is one of the most important books about the community of Transcendentalists in Concord. The book marks the passing of the seasons in rural New England, during a single year from spring to summer to fall. Written at Orchard House, the Alcott home in Concord, Massachusetts, the writings were drawn from his diaries and dwelt largely on the personalities of Alcott's famous friends - Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau - introducing these great American writers to a wider American audience. This important book reveals Alcott's own belief that mankind can achieve perfection: "Man becomes godlike as he strives for divinity, and divinity ever stoops to put on humanity and deify mankind."