John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[45] accumulated interest, and leave a clear balance of seventeen hundred and four dollars to be applied to other claims against the “Phalanx.” Thus it is seen that in the end the Brook Farm Association, as well as its successor, the Brook Farm Phalanx, went out of business with only a trifling loss. This, as before stated, was assumed and paid by Dr. Ripley, and in this manner the business honor of all concerned was saved from reproach. The farm today belongs to the Association of the Evangelical Lutheran Church for Works of Mercy, and is used as a shelter for homeless children.

The society gathered there under the auspices of Dr. Ripley was a most interesting one. It counted among its most distinguished members Hawthorne, the author of the Blithedale Romance, which has been styled “The Epic of Brook Farm” ;¹ George William Curtis and his brother; Margaret Fuller; the Macdaniel family; John S. Dwight; J. T. Codman; Albert Brisbane; and a number of lesser lights who have disappeared from the annals of the times. Although the organization doubtless owed much to the influence of Emerson and W. H. Channing, it is a noteworthy circumstance that while they gave it their countenance and moral support neither ever formally became a member.

Hawthorne, who was one of the earliest subscribers, severed his relations with the association by a letter on October 17, 1842, addressed to Dana as secretary. It runs as follows:

I ought, some time ago, to have tendered my resignation as an associate of the Brook Farm Institute, but I have been unwilling to feel myself entirely disconnected with you. As I can see but little prospect, however, of returning to you, it becomes proper for me now to take the final step. But no