The Blithedale Romance

Established in 1841 and located in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, Brook Farm was an experimental socialist commune based on Transcendentalist utopian philosophies. George Ripley, a Unitarian minister, founded the farm, which was financed by a joint-stock company set up by members. At the farm, participants held the land in common and strove to provide equity in education. Many contemporary writers and intellectuals either lived at or visited the commune, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Horace Greeley, and Charles A. Dana.

Ripley and the group aimed to fulfill the Transcendentalist goals of compassionate and equitable relationships between members and the promotion of individual freedom. The philosophy guiding the farm’s establishment centered on “the values of harmony between mind and body, spirit and flesh” (Michaud, Marilyn. A Turn to the Past: Republicanism and Brook Farm. The University of Chicago Press, March 2010, p. 68). The founders believed that manual labor would lead to physical, moral, and mental well-being and required all members to work on the farm. In addition to merging physical and intellectual pursuits, the commune hoped to reform American society by serving as a model of communal living. The group hoped to offer a solution to economic and moral problems by piloting a system that provided people from all walks of life with equal opportunities for commercial and spiritual growth.

Daily life on the farm involved not only manual labor but also social gatherings, educational opportunities, and entertainment. While members typically worked eight to 10 hours each day on agricultural pursuits, the community held costume parties and picnics, established reading clubs, and performed Shakespeare’s plays. In addition, the group traveled to attend abolitionist meetings in nearby Boston and established a school that provided education for children and adults.

As one of 100 intellectuals who joined the cooperative living community, Hawthorne spent $1,500 to hold shares in the venture and build a house on the property. He moved to Brook Farm on April 12, 1841, hoping that the mixture of manual labor and leisure time to write would allow him to reach a greater transcendental state of mind. He initially planned to bring his fiancée to Brook Farm after their wedding. However, Hawthorne found his work shoveling manure physically demanding and realized that agricultural labor severely limited his writing time. Additionally, the social demands of the community proved too much for the introverted writer. By November 1841, Hawthorne had left Brook Farm.

In the years following Hawthorne’s departure, the community faced many difficulties. Because of the inexperience of its members, the farm failed. The members then adopted a more rigid plan for the society based on the theories of Charles Fourier. Under this plan, the group adopted the phalanx system, which involved constructing a communal building and providing more regimented jobs for members. Some members opposed this new plan and left. Others stayed, but a fire at the unfinished communal building in 1846 signaled the end of the experiment.