Transcendentalists in Our Midst: The Thinkers and Writers Who Inspired Brook Farm

Many residents of West Roxbury and nearby communities are unaware that our neighborhood was home to the once-famous Brook Farm utopian commune from 1841 to 1847.  Who were the thinkers and writers who inspired and were inspired by Brook Farm?  How did their ideas evolve? How did they end up on Baker Street in West Roxbury? What has been the impact of their transcendental philosophy and this ultimately unsuccessful social experiment?

Our speaker, Prof. Dean Grodzins, is a visiting scholar at the Mass. Historical Society, a research associate at Harvard Business School, and a cartoonist. He has written a prize-winning biography, American Heretic: Theodore Parker and Transcendentalism (2002), many articles and reviews, and a book of comics. He has taught American history and literature at Harvard College, the Harvard Extension School, and Meadville Lombard Theological School, and has given scores of public talks, lectures, and speeches on historical topics.

A wine and cheese reception begins at 6:30; the lecture starts at 6:50.

At this event, New Brook Farm will introduce its spring event, a reading of The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel loosely based on his time at Brook Farm, and a talk about the novel by Hawthorne scholar Prof. Sam Coale of Wheaton College on April 6.

New Brook Farm, Inc. is a non-profit community initiative with a mission to raise awareness of the Brook Farm Historic Site, offer related educational programming, and create a demonstration farm on a small portion of the site.

More information: info@NewBrookFarm.org or 617-694-6407.