Confession- I have always been in love with books. I can still smell the scent of the old library on center street in CC town. It is a scent which still invigorates me. You can imagine my excitement when I realized that our trip to Lexington and Concord would mean a side trip to Walden as well as stops at Emerson's and Alcott's homes and a trip to the Sleepy Holly cemetery- I was simply in heaven. Alcott described her time in Lexington in this manner, " “Those Concord days were the happiest of my life, for we had charming playmates in the little Emersons, Channings, Hawthornes, and Goodwins, with the illustrious parents and their friends to enjoy our pranks and share our excursions.”
Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson, Channing, and Alcott became known as the Concord writers similar to another famous literary group"Bloomsbury Group" of London. The concord writers are described as having much in common including an interest in art& literature. They shared similar values, beliefs, and morals- They were abolitionists, transcendentalists, and nature lovers. I really think I would have enjoyed their company- it would have been something else to be a "fly on a wall" at one of their book groups.
Thoreau described his love of Concord with deep admiration, “I have never got over my surprise that I should have been born into the most estimable place in all the world, and in the very nick of time too."
I loved everything about my visit to Lexington. My visit to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery was the "bomb." Head to author's ridge and you will find all of the Concord writers there.
Need a good book this summer? May I suggest a book by a Concord writer-
Louisa May Alcott- Little Women
Nathaniel Hawthorne- The Scarlett Letter, The House of Seven Gables,
Ralph Waldo Emerson- First and 2nd series of Essays
Henry David Thoreau- Walden
Channings- 1871 biography of Thoreau- The Poet-Naturalist
Concord Hymn
Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837
By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. On this green bank, by this soft stream, We set today a votive stone; That memory may their deed redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone. Spirit, that made those heroes dare To die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spare The shaft we raise to them and thee.