George Ripley
Encyclopedia
George Ripley was an American
social reformer, Unitarian
minister, and journalist associated with Transcendentalism
. He was the founder of the short-lived Utopia
n community Brook Farm
in West Roxbury, Massachusetts
.
Born in greenfield, Massachusetts
, George Ripley was pushed to attend Harvard College
by his father and completed his studies in 1823. He went on graduate from the Harvard Divinity School
and the next year married Sophia Dana
. Shortly after, he became ordained as the minister of the Purchase Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, where he began to question traditional Unitarian beliefs. He became one of the founding members of the Transcendental Club
and hosted its first official meeting in his home. Shortly after, he resigned from the church to put Transcendental
beliefs in practice by founding an experimental commune
called Brook Farm. The community later converted to a model based on the work of Charles Fourier
, although the community was never financially stable in either format.
After Brook Farm's failure, Ripley was hired by Horace Greeley
at the New York Tribune
. He also published the New American Cyclopaedia, which made him financially successful. He built a national reputation as an arbiter of taste and literature before his death in 1880.
for 140 years before Jerome Ripley moved his family to Greenfield
, a town in the western part of the state, in 1789. He was moderately successful as the owner of a general store and tavern and was a prominent member of the community. His son George Ripley was born in Greenfield on October 3, 1802, the ninth child in the family.
George Ripley's early life was heavily influenced by women. His nearest brother was thirteen years older than he was and he was raised primarily by his conservative mother, who was distantly related to Benjamin Franklin
, and his sisters. He was sent to a private academy run by a Mr. Huntington in Hadley, Massachusetts
to prepare for college. Before going to college, he spent three months in Lincoln
with Ezra Ripley, a distant relative who was also an uncle by marriage to Ralph Waldo Emerson
. Although Ripley wanted to attend the religiously conservative Yale University
, his Unitarian
father pushed him to attend Harvard College
, then known as a hotbed of liberal Unitarianism. Ripley was a good and dedicated student, although he was not popular with students because of his trust of the establishment. Early in his time at Harvard, he had sided with the administration during a student-led protest against poor food, and his attempts at reconciling the two sides prompted ridicule from his peers. Ripley, seeking a socially useful role, found work as a teacher in Fitchburg
during winter vacation of his senior year. He graduated in 1823.
During his time at the school, Ripley became disenchanted with his father and his home town, admitting "no particular attachment to Greenfield". He hoped to enroll at Andover
but his father convinced him to stay in Cambridge to attend Harvard Divinity School
. There, he was influenced by Levi Frisbie, Professor of Natural Religion, who was largely interested in moral philosophy, which he termed "the science of the principles and obligations of duty". Ripley was becoming very interested in more "liberal" religious views, what he wrote to his mother as "so simple, scriptural, and reasonable". He graduated in 1826. A year later, on August 22, 1827, he married Sophia Dana
, a fact which he originally kept a secret from his parents. He asked his sister Marianne to inform them shortly after.
as a Theologian" in the Christian Examiner. In it, Ripley praised Schleiermacher's attempt to create a "religion of the heart" based on intuition and personal communion with God. Later that year, he published a review of British theologian James Martineau
's The Rationale of Religious Enquiry in the same publication. In the review, Ripley charged Unitarian church elders with religious intolerance because they forced the literal acceptance of miracle
s as a requirement for membership in their church. Andrews Norton
, a leading theologian of the day, responded publicly and insisted that disbelief in miracle
s ultimately denied the truth of Christianity. Norton, formerly Ripley's teacher at the Divinity School, had been labeled by many as the "hard-headed Unitarian Pope", and began his public battle with Ripley in the Boston Daily Advertiser
on November 5, 1836, in an open letter charging Ripley with academic and professional incompetence. Ripley contended that to insist upon the reality of miracles was to demand material proof of spiritual matters, and that faith needed no such external confirmation; but Norton and the mainstream of Unitarianism found this tantamount to heresy. This dispute laid the groundwork for the separation of a more extreme Transcendentalism
from its liberal Unitarian roots. The debate between Norton and Ripley, which earned allies on both sides, continued until 1840.
, and George Putnam
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
on September 8, 1836, to discuss the formation of a new club. Ten days later, on September 18, 1836, Ripley hosted their first official meeting at his house. The group at this first meeting of what would become known as the "Transcendental Club
" included Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson
, James Freeman Clarke
, and Convers Francis
as well as Hedge, Emerson, and Ripley. Future members would include Henry David Thoreau
, William Henry Channing
, Christopher Pearse Cranch
, Sylvester Judd
, and Jones Very
. Female members included Sophia Ripley
, Margaret Fuller
, and Elizabeth Peabody
. The group planned its meetings for times when Hedge was visiting from Bangor, Maine
, leading to the early nickname "Hedge's Club". The name Transcendental Club was given to the group by the public and not by its participants. Hedge wrote: "There was no club in the strict sense... only occasional meetings of like-minded men and women", earning the nickname "the brotherhood of the 'Like-Minded'". Beginning in 1839, Ripley edited Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature: fourteen volumes of translations meant to demonstrate the breadth of Transcendental thoughts.
, many began to criticize social institutions. That year, Ripley gave a sermon titled "The Temptations of the Times", suggesting that the major problem in the country was "the inordinate pursuit, the extravagant worship of wealth". Ripley had been asked by church proprietors to avoid controversial topics in his sermons. He said, "Unless a minister is expected to speak out on all subjects which are uppermost in his mind, with no fear of incurring the charge of heresy or compromising the interests of his congregation, he can never do justice to himself, to his people, or the truth which he is bound to declare". In May 1840, he offered his resignation from the Purchase Street Church but was convinced to stay. He soon decided he should leave the ministry altogether and, on October 3, 1840, he read a 7,300-word lecture, Letter Addressed to the Congregational Church in Purchase Street, expressing his dissatisfaction with Unitarianism.
Because of his experience with the Specimens translations, Ripley was chosen to be the managing editor of the Transcendental publication The Dial
at its inception, working alongside its first editor Margaret Fuller. In addition to overseeing distribution, subscriptions, printing, and finances, Ripley also contributed essays and reviews. In October 1841, he resigned his post with The Dial as he prepared for an experiment in communal living. As he told Emerson, although he was happy seeing all the Transcendental thoughts in print, he could not be truly happy "without the attempt to realize them".
In the late 1830s Ripley became increasingly engaged in "Associationism
", an early Fourier
ist socialist movement. In October 1840 he announced to the Transcendental Club his plan to form an Associationist community based on Fourier's Utopian plans. His goals were lofty. As he wrote, "If wisely executed, it will be a light over this country and this age. If not the sunrise, it will be the morning star."
Ripley and his wife formed a joint stock company
in 1841 along with 10 other initial investors. Shares of the company were sold for $500 apiece with a promise of five percent of the profits to each investor. The founding membership of the original community included Nathaniel Hawthorne
. They chose the Ellis Farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts
as the site of their experiment, which they named Brook Farm
. Its 170 acre (0.6879662 km²) were about eight miles (13 km) from Boston; a pamphlet described the land as a "place of great natural beauty, combining a convenient nearness to the city with a degree of retirement and freedom from unfavorable influences unusual even in the country". The land, however, turned out to be difficult to farm and the community struggled with financial difficulties as it built greenhouse
s and craft shops.
Brook Farm was initially based mostly on the ideals of Transcendentalism; its founders believed that by pooling labor they could sustain the community and still have time for literary and scientific pursuits. The experiment meant to serve as an example for the rest of the world, established on the principles of "industry without drudgery, and true equality without its vulgarity". Many in the community wrote of how much they enjoyed their experience. One participant, a man named John Codman, joined the community at the age of 27 in 1843. He wrote, "It was for the meanest a life above humdrum, and for the greatest something far, infinitely far beyond. They looked into the gates of life and saw beyond charming visions, and hopes springing up for all". In their free time, the members of Brook Farm enjoyed music, dancing, card games, drama, costume parties, sledding, and skating. Hawthorne, eventually elected treasurer of the community, did not enjoy his experience. He wrote to his wife-to-be Sophia Peabody, "labor is the curse of the world, and nobody can meddle with it without becoming proportionately brutified".
Many outside the community were also critical, especially in the press. The New York Observer, for example, suggested that, "The Associationists, under the pretense of a desire to promote order and morals, design to overthrow the marriage institution, and in the place of the divine law, to substitute the 'passions' as the proper regulator of the intercourse of the sexes", concluding that they were "secretly and industriously aiming to destroy the foundation of society".
In 1844, the community, perpetually struggling financially, drafted an entirely new constitution and committed to following more closely the Fourierist model. Not everyone at the community supported the transition, and many left. Many were disappointed that the new, more structured daily routine de-emphasized the carefree leisure time that had been a trademark. Ripley himself became a celebrity proponent of Fourierism and organized conventions throughout New England to discuss the community.
By May 1846, troubled by the financial difficulties at Brook Farm, Ripley had made an informal split from the community. By its closure a year later, Brook Farm had amassed a total debt of $17,445. Ripley was devastated at the failure of his experiment and told a friend, "I can now understand how a man would feel if he could attend his own funeral". His personal life was also taxed. His wife had converted to Catholicism
in 1846, encouraged by Orestes Brownson
, and had become doubtful of his Associationist politics; the Ripleys' relationship became strained by the 1850s.
at the New York Tribune
, taking the role left vacant by Margaret Fuller. Greeley had been a proponent of Brook Farm's conversion to Fourierism. Ripley started his role with the Tribune at $12 a week and, at this wage, was not able to pay off the debt of Brook Farm until 1862. As a critic, he believed in high moral standards for literature but offered good-natured praise in the majority of his reviews. Greeley took advantage of Ripley's cheerful style of writing to boost circulation amid significant competition. Ripley wrote a "Gotham Gossip" column and many articles discussing local personalities and notable public events, including speeches by Henry Clay
and Frederick Douglass
. He stayed away from philosophy of theology, despite some efforts to persuade him to write on the subject. As he told a friend, he had "long since lost... immediate interest in that line of speculation".
Ripley then edited Harper's Magazine
. Together with Bayard Taylor
he compiled a Handbook of Literature and the Fine Arts (1852).
With Charles A. Dana
, he edited the 16 volume The New American Cyclopaedia (1857–1863), reissued as The American Cyclopaedia (1873–1876). It sold in the millions and its immediate earnings amounted to over $100,000.
He also continued his critical work and in 1860 reviewed On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
. He was one of the few contemporary critics to be sympathetic to Darwin, although he was reluctant to show he was convinced of the theories.
In 1861 Sophia Ripley died. George Ripley remarried, to Louisa Sclossberger, in 1865, and was a part of the Gilded Age
New York literary scene for the remainder of his life. Because of his convivial nature, he was careful to avoid the city's rampant literary feuds at the time. He became a public figure with a national reputation and, known as an arbiter of taste, he helped establish the National Institute of Literature, Art, and Science in 1869. In his later years, he began suffering frequent illnesses, including a bout with influenza
in 1875 which prevented him from traveling to Germany. He also suffered from gout
and rheumatism
.
Ripley was found dead at his desk on July 4, 1880, slumped over his work. Pallbearers at his funeral included Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, George William Curtis
, and Whitelaw Reid
. At the time of his death, Ripley had become financially successful; the New American Cyclopaedia had earned him royalties of nearly $1.5 million. The biography of George Ripley (1882) was written by Octavius Brooks Frothingham
.
, the New York Evening Gazette
, and the Chicago Daily Tribune. Henry Theodore Tuckerman
commended Ripley as "a scholar and an aesthetic as well as technical critic: [he] knows public taste and the laws of literature".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
social reformer, Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
minister, and journalist associated with Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...
. He was the founder of the short-lived Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n community Brook Farm
Brook Farm
Brook Farm, also called the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education or the Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education, was a utopian experiment in communal living in the United States in the 1840s...
in West Roxbury, Massachusetts
West Roxbury, Massachusetts
West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston bordered by Roslindale to the north, the Town of Dedham to the east and south, the Town of Brookline and the City of Newton to the west. Many people mistakenly confuse West Roxbury with Roxbury, but the two are not connected. West Roxbury is separated from...
.
Born in greenfield, Massachusetts
Greenfield, Massachusetts
Greenfield is a city in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,456 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Franklin County. Greenfield is home to Greenfield Community College, the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Franklin County Fair...
, George Ripley was pushed to attend Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
by his father and completed his studies in 1823. He went on graduate from the Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
and the next year married Sophia Dana
Sophia Ripley
Sophia Willard Dana Ripley , wife of George Ripley, was a 19th-century feminist associated with Transcendentalism and the Brook Farm community.-Biography:...
. Shortly after, he became ordained as the minister of the Purchase Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, where he began to question traditional Unitarian beliefs. He became one of the founding members of the Transcendental Club
Transcendental Club
The Transcendental Club was a group of New England intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century which gave rise to Transcendentalism.-Overview:...
and hosted its first official meeting in his home. Shortly after, he resigned from the church to put Transcendental
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...
beliefs in practice by founding an experimental commune
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
called Brook Farm. The community later converted to a model based on the work of Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
, although the community was never financially stable in either format.
After Brook Farm's failure, Ripley was hired by Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
at the New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
. He also published the New American Cyclopaedia, which made him financially successful. He built a national reputation as an arbiter of taste and literature before his death in 1880.
Early life and education
Ripley's ancestors had lived in Hingham, MassachusettsHingham, Massachusetts
Hingham is a town in northern Plymouth County on the South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and suburb in Greater Boston. The United States Census Bureau 2008 estimated population was 22,561...
for 140 years before Jerome Ripley moved his family to Greenfield
Greenfield, Massachusetts
Greenfield is a city in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,456 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Franklin County. Greenfield is home to Greenfield Community College, the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Franklin County Fair...
, a town in the western part of the state, in 1789. He was moderately successful as the owner of a general store and tavern and was a prominent member of the community. His son George Ripley was born in Greenfield on October 3, 1802, the ninth child in the family.
George Ripley's early life was heavily influenced by women. His nearest brother was thirteen years older than he was and he was raised primarily by his conservative mother, who was distantly related to Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, and his sisters. He was sent to a private academy run by a Mr. Huntington in Hadley, Massachusetts
Hadley, Massachusetts
Hadley is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The population was 4,793 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around Hampshire Mall and Mountain Farms Mall along Route 9 is a major shopping destination for the surrounding...
to prepare for college. Before going to college, he spent three months in Lincoln
Lincoln, Massachusetts
Lincoln is a town in the historic area of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,362 at the 2010 census, including residents of Hanscom Air Force Base that live within town limits...
with Ezra Ripley, a distant relative who was also an uncle by marriage to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
. Although Ripley wanted to attend the religiously conservative Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, his Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
father pushed him to attend Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, then known as a hotbed of liberal Unitarianism. Ripley was a good and dedicated student, although he was not popular with students because of his trust of the establishment. Early in his time at Harvard, he had sided with the administration during a student-led protest against poor food, and his attempts at reconciling the two sides prompted ridicule from his peers. Ripley, seeking a socially useful role, found work as a teacher in Fitchburg
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Fitchburg is the third largest city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,318 at the 2010 census. Fitchburg is home to Fitchburg State University as well as 17 public and private elementary and high schools.- History :...
during winter vacation of his senior year. He graduated in 1823.
During his time at the school, Ripley became disenchanted with his father and his home town, admitting "no particular attachment to Greenfield". He hoped to enroll at Andover
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
but his father convinced him to stay in Cambridge to attend Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
. There, he was influenced by Levi Frisbie, Professor of Natural Religion, who was largely interested in moral philosophy, which he termed "the science of the principles and obligations of duty". Ripley was becoming very interested in more "liberal" religious views, what he wrote to his mother as "so simple, scriptural, and reasonable". He graduated in 1826. A year later, on August 22, 1827, he married Sophia Dana
Sophia Ripley
Sophia Willard Dana Ripley , wife of George Ripley, was a 19th-century feminist associated with Transcendentalism and the Brook Farm community.-Biography:...
, a fact which he originally kept a secret from his parents. He asked his sister Marianne to inform them shortly after.
Early career
Ripley officially became a minister at Boston's Purchase Street Church on November 8, 1826, and became influential in the developing the Unitarian religion. The first ten years of his tenure there were quiet and uneventful, until March 1836, when Ripley published a long article titled "SchleiermacherFriedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher was a German theologian and philosopher known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant orthodoxy. He also became influential in the evolution of Higher Criticism, and his work forms part of the foundation of...
as a Theologian" in the Christian Examiner. In it, Ripley praised Schleiermacher's attempt to create a "religion of the heart" based on intuition and personal communion with God. Later that year, he published a review of British theologian James Martineau
James Martineau
James Martineau was an English religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College, the principal training college for British Unitarianism.-Early life:He was born in Norwich,...
's The Rationale of Religious Enquiry in the same publication. In the review, Ripley charged Unitarian church elders with religious intolerance because they forced the literal acceptance of miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s as a requirement for membership in their church. Andrews Norton
Andrews Norton
Andrews Norton was an American preacher and theologian. Along with William Ellery Channing, he was the leader of mainstream Unitarianism of the early and middle 19th century....
, a leading theologian of the day, responded publicly and insisted that disbelief in miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s ultimately denied the truth of Christianity. Norton, formerly Ripley's teacher at the Divinity School, had been labeled by many as the "hard-headed Unitarian Pope", and began his public battle with Ripley in the Boston Daily Advertiser
Boston Daily Advertiser
The Boston Daily Advertiser was the first daily newspaper in Boston, and for many years the only daily paper in Boston.-History:...
on November 5, 1836, in an open letter charging Ripley with academic and professional incompetence. Ripley contended that to insist upon the reality of miracles was to demand material proof of spiritual matters, and that faith needed no such external confirmation; but Norton and the mainstream of Unitarianism found this tantamount to heresy. This dispute laid the groundwork for the separation of a more extreme Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...
from its liberal Unitarian roots. The debate between Norton and Ripley, which earned allies on both sides, continued until 1840.
Transcendental Club
Ripley met with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Henry HedgeFrederick Henry Hedge
Frederick Henry Hedge was a New England Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist. He was a founder of the Transcendental Club, originally called Hedge's Club, and active in the development of Transcendentalism.-Biography:...
, and George Putnam
George Putnam
George Putnam may refer to:*George Putnam , Los Angeles, California, television newsman*George D. Putnam , screenwriter*George F. Putnam, American historian...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
on September 8, 1836, to discuss the formation of a new club. Ten days later, on September 18, 1836, Ripley hosted their first official meeting at his house. The group at this first meeting of what would become known as the "Transcendental Club
Transcendental Club
The Transcendental Club was a group of New England intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century which gave rise to Transcendentalism.-Overview:...
" included Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson
Orestes Brownson
Orestes Augustus Brownson was a New England intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer...
, James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke , an American theologian and author.-Biography:Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, James Freeman Clarke attended the Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard College in 1829, and Harvard Divinity School in 1833...
, and Convers Francis
Convers Francis
Convers Francis was a Unitarian minister from Watertown, Massachusetts.-Life and work:He was born the son of Susannah Rand Francis and Convers Francis, and named after his father. His sister, Lydia Maria, later became an important reformer.Francis studied to become a minister at Harvard Divinity...
as well as Hedge, Emerson, and Ripley. Future members would include Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
, William Henry Channing
William Henry Channing
William Henry Channing was an American Unitarian clergyman, writer and philosopher.-Biography:William Henry Channing was born in Boston, Massachusetts...
, Christopher Pearse Cranch
Christopher Pearse Cranch
Christopher Pearse Cranch was an American writer and artist.-Biography:Cranch was born in the District of Columbia. He attended Columbian College and Harvard Divinity School. He briefly held a position as a Unitarian minister...
, Sylvester Judd
Sylvester Judd
Sylvester Judd was an American novelist.-Biography:Sylvester Judd III was born on July 23, 1813, in Westhampton, Massachusetts to Sylvester Judd II and Apphia Hall. He studied at Hopkins Academy in Hadley, Massachusetts, graduated from Yale College in 1836, and from Harvard Divinity School in 1840...
, and Jones Very
Jones Very
Jones Very was an American essayist, poet, clergymen, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. He was known as a scholar of William Shakespeare and many of his poems were Shakespearean sonnets...
. Female members included Sophia Ripley
Sophia Ripley
Sophia Willard Dana Ripley , wife of George Ripley, was a 19th-century feminist associated with Transcendentalism and the Brook Farm community.-Biography:...
, Margaret Fuller
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
, and Elizabeth Peabody
Elizabeth Peabody
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was an American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic developmental and educational value.-Biography:Peabody was born in Billerica,...
. The group planned its meetings for times when Hedge was visiting from Bangor, Maine
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
, leading to the early nickname "Hedge's Club". The name Transcendental Club was given to the group by the public and not by its participants. Hedge wrote: "There was no club in the strict sense... only occasional meetings of like-minded men and women", earning the nickname "the brotherhood of the 'Like-Minded'". Beginning in 1839, Ripley edited Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature: fourteen volumes of translations meant to demonstrate the breadth of Transcendental thoughts.
Separation from church
Amid the Panic of 1837Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis or market correction in the United States built on a speculative fever. The end of the Second Bank of the United States had produced a period of runaway inflation, but on May 10, 1837 in New York City, every bank began to accept payment only in specie ,...
, many began to criticize social institutions. That year, Ripley gave a sermon titled "The Temptations of the Times", suggesting that the major problem in the country was "the inordinate pursuit, the extravagant worship of wealth". Ripley had been asked by church proprietors to avoid controversial topics in his sermons. He said, "Unless a minister is expected to speak out on all subjects which are uppermost in his mind, with no fear of incurring the charge of heresy or compromising the interests of his congregation, he can never do justice to himself, to his people, or the truth which he is bound to declare". In May 1840, he offered his resignation from the Purchase Street Church but was convinced to stay. He soon decided he should leave the ministry altogether and, on October 3, 1840, he read a 7,300-word lecture, Letter Addressed to the Congregational Church in Purchase Street, expressing his dissatisfaction with Unitarianism.
Because of his experience with the Specimens translations, Ripley was chosen to be the managing editor of the Transcendental publication The Dial
The Dial
The Dial was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. In the 1880s it was revived as a political magazine...
at its inception, working alongside its first editor Margaret Fuller. In addition to overseeing distribution, subscriptions, printing, and finances, Ripley also contributed essays and reviews. In October 1841, he resigned his post with The Dial as he prepared for an experiment in communal living. As he told Emerson, although he was happy seeing all the Transcendental thoughts in print, he could not be truly happy "without the attempt to realize them".
Brook Farm
Associationism
Associationism in philosophy refers to the idea that mental processes operate by the association of one state with its successor states.The idea is first recorded in Plato and Aristotle, especially with regard to the succession of memories....
", an early Fourier
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
ist socialist movement. In October 1840 he announced to the Transcendental Club his plan to form an Associationist community based on Fourier's Utopian plans. His goals were lofty. As he wrote, "If wisely executed, it will be a light over this country and this age. If not the sunrise, it will be the morning star."
Ripley and his wife formed a joint stock company
Joint stock company
A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...
in 1841 along with 10 other initial investors. Shares of the company were sold for $500 apiece with a promise of five percent of the profits to each investor. The founding membership of the original community included Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
. They chose the Ellis Farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts
West Roxbury, Massachusetts
West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston bordered by Roslindale to the north, the Town of Dedham to the east and south, the Town of Brookline and the City of Newton to the west. Many people mistakenly confuse West Roxbury with Roxbury, but the two are not connected. West Roxbury is separated from...
as the site of their experiment, which they named Brook Farm
Brook Farm
Brook Farm, also called the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education or the Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education, was a utopian experiment in communal living in the United States in the 1840s...
. Its 170 acre (0.6879662 km²) were about eight miles (13 km) from Boston; a pamphlet described the land as a "place of great natural beauty, combining a convenient nearness to the city with a degree of retirement and freedom from unfavorable influences unusual even in the country". The land, however, turned out to be difficult to farm and the community struggled with financial difficulties as it built greenhouse
Greenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
s and craft shops.
Brook Farm was initially based mostly on the ideals of Transcendentalism; its founders believed that by pooling labor they could sustain the community and still have time for literary and scientific pursuits. The experiment meant to serve as an example for the rest of the world, established on the principles of "industry without drudgery, and true equality without its vulgarity". Many in the community wrote of how much they enjoyed their experience. One participant, a man named John Codman, joined the community at the age of 27 in 1843. He wrote, "It was for the meanest a life above humdrum, and for the greatest something far, infinitely far beyond. They looked into the gates of life and saw beyond charming visions, and hopes springing up for all". In their free time, the members of Brook Farm enjoyed music, dancing, card games, drama, costume parties, sledding, and skating. Hawthorne, eventually elected treasurer of the community, did not enjoy his experience. He wrote to his wife-to-be Sophia Peabody, "labor is the curse of the world, and nobody can meddle with it without becoming proportionately brutified".
Many outside the community were also critical, especially in the press. The New York Observer, for example, suggested that, "The Associationists, under the pretense of a desire to promote order and morals, design to overthrow the marriage institution, and in the place of the divine law, to substitute the 'passions' as the proper regulator of the intercourse of the sexes", concluding that they were "secretly and industriously aiming to destroy the foundation of society".
In 1844, the community, perpetually struggling financially, drafted an entirely new constitution and committed to following more closely the Fourierist model. Not everyone at the community supported the transition, and many left. Many were disappointed that the new, more structured daily routine de-emphasized the carefree leisure time that had been a trademark. Ripley himself became a celebrity proponent of Fourierism and organized conventions throughout New England to discuss the community.
By May 1846, troubled by the financial difficulties at Brook Farm, Ripley had made an informal split from the community. By its closure a year later, Brook Farm had amassed a total debt of $17,445. Ripley was devastated at the failure of his experiment and told a friend, "I can now understand how a man would feel if he could attend his own funeral". His personal life was also taxed. His wife had converted to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
in 1846, encouraged by Orestes Brownson
Orestes Brownson
Orestes Augustus Brownson was a New England intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer...
, and had become doubtful of his Associationist politics; the Ripleys' relationship became strained by the 1850s.
Writing
After Brook Farm, George Ripley began to work as a freelance journalist. In 1849 he was employed by Horace GreeleyHorace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
at the New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
, taking the role left vacant by Margaret Fuller. Greeley had been a proponent of Brook Farm's conversion to Fourierism. Ripley started his role with the Tribune at $12 a week and, at this wage, was not able to pay off the debt of Brook Farm until 1862. As a critic, he believed in high moral standards for literature but offered good-natured praise in the majority of his reviews. Greeley took advantage of Ripley's cheerful style of writing to boost circulation amid significant competition. Ripley wrote a "Gotham Gossip" column and many articles discussing local personalities and notable public events, including speeches by Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
and Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
. He stayed away from philosophy of theology, despite some efforts to persuade him to write on the subject. As he told a friend, he had "long since lost... immediate interest in that line of speculation".
Ripley then edited Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
. Together with Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylor was an American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author.-Life and work:...
he compiled a Handbook of Literature and the Fine Arts (1852).
With Charles A. Dana
Charles Anderson Dana
Charles Anderson Dana was an American journalist, author, and government official, best known for his association with Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War and his aggressive political advocacy after the war....
, he edited the 16 volume The New American Cyclopaedia (1857–1863), reissued as The American Cyclopaedia (1873–1876). It sold in the millions and its immediate earnings amounted to over $100,000.
He also continued his critical work and in 1860 reviewed On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. He was one of the few contemporary critics to be sympathetic to Darwin, although he was reluctant to show he was convinced of the theories.
Later years
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
New York literary scene for the remainder of his life. Because of his convivial nature, he was careful to avoid the city's rampant literary feuds at the time. He became a public figure with a national reputation and, known as an arbiter of taste, he helped establish the National Institute of Literature, Art, and Science in 1869. In his later years, he began suffering frequent illnesses, including a bout with influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
in 1875 which prevented him from traveling to Germany. He also suffered from gout
Gout
Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint. The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected . However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate...
and rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...
.
Ripley was found dead at his desk on July 4, 1880, slumped over his work. Pallbearers at his funeral included Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, George William Curtis
George William Curtis
George William Curtis was an American writer and public speaker, born in Providence, Rhode Island, of old New England stock.-Biography:...
, and Whitelaw Reid
Whitelaw Reid
Whitelaw Reid was a U.S. politician and newspaper editor, as well as the author of a popular history of Ohio in the Civil War.-Early life:...
. At the time of his death, Ripley had become financially successful; the New American Cyclopaedia had earned him royalties of nearly $1.5 million. The biography of George Ripley (1882) was written by Octavius Brooks Frothingham
Octavius Brooks Frothingham
Octavius Brooks Frothingham , was an American clergyman and author.-Biography:He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham , a prominent Unitarian preacher, and through his mother's family he was related to Phillips Brooks...
.
Critical assessment
Ripley built a wide reputation as a critic. Contemporary publications rated him as one of the most important critics of the day, including the Hartford Courant, the Springfield RepublicanSpringfield Republican
The Republican is a newspaper based in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is owned by Newhouse Newspapers, a division of Advance Publications. It played important roles in the United States Republican Party's founding, Charles Dow's career, and the invention of the pronoun "Ms."-Beginning:Established...
, the New York Evening Gazette
Evening Gazette
Evening Gazette is the name of several local newspapers:United Kingdom* Colchester Evening Gazette* Evening Gazette * Evening Gazette United States...
, and the Chicago Daily Tribune. Henry Theodore Tuckerman
Henry Theodore Tuckerman
Henry Theodore Tuckerman was an American writer, essayist and critic.-Biography:Tuckerman was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a sympathetic and delicate critic, with a graceful style. He wrote extensively both in prose and verse. He travelled much in Italy, which influenced his choice of...
commended Ripley as "a scholar and an aesthetic as well as technical critic: [he] knows public taste and the laws of literature".
External links
- George Ripley, Charles A. Dana. The American Cyclopaedia.. From Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
. - Ripley biography from Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography
- Ripley's career as a writer from Alcott School
- Ripley and Brook Farm from Transcendentalism Web
- Collection Guide to Ripley's scrapbooks, Houghton Library at Harvard University