### BROOK FARM AND CONCORD by Henry James > contrary, I find such an entry as this in the American Note-Books in 1841: "I was invited to dine at Mr. Bancroft’s yesterday, with Miss Margaret Fuller; but Providence had given me some business to do; for which I was very thankful!" ([Location 62096](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62096)) > > It seems odd, as his biographer says, "that the least gregarious of men should have been drawn into a socialistic community;" but although it is apparent that Hawthorne went to Brook Farm without any great Transcendental fervour, yet he had various good reasons for casting his lot in this would-be happy family. He was as yet unable to marry, but he naturally wished to do so as speedily as possible, and there was a prospect that Brook Farm would prove an economical residence. ([Location 62119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62119)) > > And then it is only fair to believe that Hawthorne was interested in the experiment, and that though he was not a Transcendentalist, an Abolitionist, or a Fourierite, as his companions were in some degree or other likely to be, he was willing, as a generous and unoccupied young man, to lend a hand in any reasonable scheme for helping people to live together on better terms than the common. ([Location 62122](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62122)) > > The Brook Farm scheme was, as such things go, a reasonable one; ([Location 62124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62124)) - Note: Brook farm utopia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_Farm?wprov=sfti1 https://maps.apple.com/?ll=42.291361,-71.174086&q=Brook+Farm > The relations of the sexes were neither more nor less than what they usually are in American life, excellent; and in such particulars the scheme was thoroughly conservative and irreproachable. ([Location 62128](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62128)) > > The Transcendentalists read a great deal of French and German, made themselves intimate with George Sand and Goethe, and many other writers; but the strong and deep New England conscience accompanied them on all their intellectual excursions, and ([Location 62136](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62136)) > > Henry Thoreau was essentially a sylvan personage and would not have been, however the fashion of his time might have turned, a man about town. ([Location 62139](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62139)) > > The situation was summed up and transfigured in the admirable and exquisite Emerson. ([Location 62159](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62159)) > > compromising for the sake of being more comfortable. He urged that a man should await his call, his finding the thing to do which he should really believe in doing, and not be urged by the world’s opinion to do simply the world’s work. ([Location 62167](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62167)) > > Hawthorne played socially in the little community at West Roxbury. His biographer describes him as sitting "silently, hour after hour, in the broad old-fashioned hall of the house, where he could listen almost unseen to the chat and merriment of the young people, himself almost always holding a book before him, but seldom turning the leaves." ([Location 62193](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62193)) > > Wordsworth’s "plain living and high thinking" were made actual. ([Location 62220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62220)) > > Brook Farm as an occasional visitor; not as a labourer in the Hive.) ([Location 62222](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62222)) > > In the preface to the tales written at the Manse he talks of many things and just touches upon some of the members of his circle — especially upon that odd genius, his fellow-villager, Henry Thoreau. ([Location 62313](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62313)) > > But any reference to it would be ungenerous which should omit to pay a tribute in passing to the author of Walden. Whatever question there may be of his talent, there can be none, I think, of his genius. It was a slim and crooked one; but it was eminently personal. He was imperfect, unfinished, inartistic; he was worse than provincial — he was parochial; it is only at his best that he is readable. But at his best he has an extreme natural charm, and he must always be mentioned after those Americans — Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Lowell, Motley — who have written originally. ([Location 62316](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62316)) > > parti-pris ([Location 62383](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DRNYOFE&location=62383)) #thoreau_class