Top 5 biggest gripes with Bronson Alcott.
1. He was a burden on his daughter Louisa his entire life, so much so that he DIED TWO DAYS BEFORE HER. So she only had two days of not having to deal with her cumbersome father before she died as well.
As he was bedridden at the end of his life, Alcott's daughter Louisa May came to visit him at Louisburg on March 1, 1888. He said to her, "I am going up. Come with me." She responded, "I wish I could."He died three days later on March 4; Louisa May died only two days after her father.
2. He made his family live on a commune but didn't bother to help tend the farm to feed his family and his family nearly starved and froze to death. His suffering wife finally packed up the kids and left and he returned home like, two weeks later.
Short description of the life at the commune:
“they agreed to follow a strict vegetarian diet and to till the land without the use of animal labor. After some difficulty, they relented and allowed some cattle to be "enslaved".They also banned coffee, tea, alcoholic drinks, milk, and warm bathwater.They only ate "aspiring vegetables" — those which grew upward — and refused those that grew downward like potatoes.”
3. He was basically free-loading off people who were smarter than him his entire life be it- Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, his WIFE, his DAUGHTER et al.
4. Abby May (his wife) wrote in her journal on January 17, 1843, "A day of some excitement, as Mr. Alcott refused to pay his town tax ... After waiting some time to be committed [to jail], he was told it was paid by a friend. Thus we were spared the affliction of his absence and the triumph of suffering for his principles.”
5. His writing is incoherent.
One time when he was a kid- he looked directly at the sun and then tripped on a rock and fell.
Thanks for enduring this @sheisraging
