Editing Amos Bronson Alcott (section)

===Transcendentalist===
Beginning in 1836, Alcott's membership in the [[Transcendental Club]] put him in the company of such as [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Orestes Brownson]] and [[Theodore Parker]].<ref>Buell, Lawrence. ''Emerson''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003: 32–33. {{ISBN|0-674-01139-2}}</ref> He became a member at the club's second meeting and hosted its third.<ref name=Gura89/> A biographer of Emerson described the group as "the occasional meetings of a changing body of liberal thinkers, agreeing in nothing but their liberality".<ref name=Gura5>{{Harvnb|Gura|2007|p=5}}</ref> [[Frederic Henry Hedge]] wrote similarly that "[t]here was no club in the strict sense&nbsp;... only occasional meetings of like-minded men and women".<ref name=Gura5/> Alcott preferred the term "Symposium" for their group.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hankins|2004|p=24}}</ref>

In late April 1840, Alcott moved to the town of [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]]<ref name=Packer115>{{Harvnb|Packer|2007|p=115}}</ref> urged by Emerson. He rented a home for $50 a year within walking distance of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson House|Emerson's house]]. He named it Dove Cottage.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schreiner|2006|p=83}}</ref> A supporter of his philosophies, Emerson offered to help Alcott with his writing. This proved a difficult task. For example, after several revisions of the essay "Psyche" (Alcott's account of how he educated his daughters), Emerson deemed it unpublishable.<ref name=Reisen35>{{Harvnb|Reisen|2009|p=35}}</ref> Alcott also wrote a series patterned after the work of German writer [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] which was published in the Transcendentalists' journal, ''[[The Dial]]''. Emerson had written to Margaret Fuller, then editor, that Alcott's so-called "[[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]] Sayings" might "pass muster & even pass for just & great",<ref name=Packer115/> but they were widely mocked as silly and unintelligible. Fuller herself disliked them, but did not want to hurt Alcott's feelings.<ref name=Packer116>{{Harvnb|Packer|2007|p=116}}</ref> The following example appeared in the first issue:
{{Blockquote|text=Nature is quick with spirit. In eternal systole and diastole, the living tides course gladly along, incarnating organ and vessel in their mystic flow. Let her pulsations for a moment pause on their errands, and creation's self ebbs instantly into chaos and invisibility again. The visible world is the extremist wave of that spiritual flood, whose flux is life, whose reflux death, efflux thought, and conflux light. Organization is the confine of incarnation,—body the atomy of God.<ref>{{Harvnb|Felton|2006|p=23}}</ref>}}

With financial support from Emerson,<ref name=Schreiner95>{{Harvnb|Schreiner|2006|p=95}}</ref> and leaving his family in the care of his brother Junius,<ref>{{Harvnb|Matteson|2007|p=99}}</ref> Alcott departed Concord for a visit to England on May 8, 1842. There he met admirers [[Charles Lane (transcendentalist)|Charles Lane]] and Henry C. Wright,<ref>{{Harvnb|Packer|2007|pp=147–148}}</ref> supporters of [[Alcott House]], an experimental school outside London based on Alcott's Temple School methods.<ref name=Schreiner95/> The two men followed Alcott back to the United States and, in an early communitarian experiment, Lane and his son moved in with the Alcotts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schreiner|2006|pp=103–104}}</ref>

Persuaded in part by Lane's [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist views]], Alcott took a stand against [[John Tyler|President Tyler]]'s plan to annex [[Texas]] as a slave territory and [[tax resistance|refused to pay]] his [[Tax per head|poll tax]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Schreiner|2006|pp=110–111}}</ref> Abby May wrote in her journal on January 17, 1843, "A day of some excitement, as Mr. Alcott refused to pay his town tax&nbsp;... After waiting some time to be committed [to jail], he was told it was paid by a friend. Thus we were spared the affliction of his absence and the triumph of suffering for his principles."<ref>{{Harvnb|Dahlstrand|1982|p=194}}</ref> The incident inspired [[Henry David Thoreau]], whose similar protest against the $1.50 poll tax led to a night in jail and his essay "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Civil Disobedience]]".<ref>{{Harvnb|Packer|2007|pp=187–188}}</ref>