Brook Farm, 1841–47, an experimental farm at West Roxbury, Mass., based on cooperative living. Founded by George Ripley Ripley, George, 1802–80, American literary critic and author, b. Greenfield, Mass. After graduating from Harvard Divinity School in 1826, he entered the Unitarian ministry.
..... Click the link for more information. , a Unitarian minister, the farm was initially financed by a joint-stock company with 24 shares of stock at $500 per share. Each member was to take part in the manual labor in an attempt to make the group self-sufficient. Intellectual life was stimulating, with such members as Nathaniel Hawthorne Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804–64, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Salem, Mass., one of the great masters of American fiction. His novels and tales are penetrating explorations of moral and spiritual conflicts.
..... Click the link for more information. , John S. Dwight, Charles A. Dana Dana, Charles Anderson , 1819–97, American newspaper editor, b. Hinsdale, N.H. He was a member of the Brook Farm community for five years. In 1847 he began 15 years on the New York Tribune, most of that time as managing editor.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Isaac Hecker Hecker, Isaac Thomas, 1819–88, American Roman Catholic priest, founder of the Paulist Fathers; son of Prussian immigrants. Feeling the general discontent of his day in the dying Puritanism of New England, he associated with the transcendentalists, stayed for a
..... Click the link for more information. , and such visitors as Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson, Ralph Waldo , 1803–82, American poet and essayist, b. Boston. Through his essays, poems, and lectures, the "Sage of Concord" established himself as a leading spokesman of transcendentalism and as a major figure in American literature.
..... Click the link for more information. , W. E. Channing Channing, William Ellery, 1780–1842, American Unitarian minister and author, b. Newport, R.I. At 23 he was ordained minister of the Federal St. Congregational Church in Boston, where he served until his death.
..... Click the link for more information. , Margaret Fuller Fuller, Margaret, 1810–50, American writer and lecturer, b. Cambridgeport (now part of Cambridge), Mass. She was one of the most influential personalities of her day in American literary circles.
..... Click the link for more information. , Horace Greeley Greeley, Horace, 1811–72, American newspaper editor, founder of the New York Tribune, b. Amherst, N.H. Early Life

His irregular schooling, ending at 15, was followed by a four-year apprenticeship (1826–30) on a country weekly at
..... Click the link for more information. , and Orestes Brownson Brownson, Orestes Augustus , 1803–76, American author and clergyman, b. Stockbridge, Vt. Largely self-taught, he became a vigorous and influential writer on social and religious questions.
..... Click the link for more information. . Brook Farm was mainly an outgrowth of Unitarianism Unitarianism, in general, the form of Christianity that denies the doctrine of the Trinity, believing that God exists only in one person. While there were previous antitrinitarian movements in the early Christian Church, like Arianism and Monarchianism, modern
..... Click the link for more information. , although most of the members had left that church and were advocates of the literary and philosophical movement known as transcendentalism transcendentalism [Lat.,=overpassing], in literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to 1860. It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the
..... Click the link for more information. . Economically, the community's excellent school was the most successful part of the venture (anticipating John Dewey's progressive-education ideas of learning from experience); agriculture showed little profit because of the sandy soil and the inexperience of the farmers. The popularity of the doctrines of Charles Fourier Fourier, Charles , 1772–1837, French social philosopher. From a bourgeois family, he condemned existing institutions and evolved a kind of utopian socialism.
..... Click the link for more information. led, especially through the efforts of Albert Brisbane, to Brook Farm's conversion to a phalanx in 1844. The group, however, did not long survive the financial disaster of the burning (1846) of the uncompleted central building. The Harbinger (1845–49), printed at Brook Farm and edited by Ripley, was rather a Fourierist weekly newspaper than the organ of Brook Farm and was continued in New York City with Parke Godwin as editor after 1847.

Bibliography

See E. R. Curtis, A Season in Utopia (1961, repr. 1971).

Brook Farm (Institute of Agriculture and Education)

Short-lived utopian experiment in communal living (1841–47) in West Roxbury, Mass. (near Boston), founded by George Ripley. The best known of the many utopian communities organized in the U.S. in the mid-19th century, Brook Farm was to combine the thinker and the worker, to guarantee the greatest mental freedom, and to prepare a society of liberal, cultivated persons whose lives would be more wholesome and simpler than they could be amid the pressure of competitive institutions. It is remembered for the distinguished literary figures and intellectual leaders associated with it, including Charles A. Dana, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Horace Greeley, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Ralph Waldo Emerson (though not all of them were actual members). It was also noted for the modern educational theory of its excellent school. See also Oneida Community.

Brook Farm

literary, socialist commune intended to be small utopia (1841–1846). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 63]

See : Utopia

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