Page "Amos Bronson Alcott" Paragraph 20

Lane and Alcott collaborated on a major expansion of their educational theories into a Utopian society.

Alcott, however, was still in debt and could not purchase the land needed for their planned community.

In a letter, Lane wrote, " I do not see anyone to act the money part but myself.

" In May 1843, he purchased a farm in Harvard, Massachusetts.

Up front, he paid $ 1, 500 of the total $ 1, 800 value of the property ; the rest was meant to be paid by the Alcotts over a two year period.

They moved to the farm on June 1 and optimistically named it " Fruitlands " despite only ten old apple trees on the property.

In July, Alcott announced their plans in The Dial: " We have made an arrangement with the proprieter of an estate of about a hundred acres, which liberates this tract from human ownership ".