Page "Amos Bronson Alcott" Paragraph 5

At age 17, Alcott passed the exam for a teaching certificate but had trouble finding work as a teacher.

Instead, he left home and became a traveling salesman in the American South, peddling books and merchandise.

He hoped the job would earn him enough money to support his parents, " to make their cares, and burdens less ... and get them free from debt ", though he soon spent most of his earnings on a new suit.

At first, he thought it an acceptable occupation but soon worried about his spiritual well-being.

In March 1823, Alcott wrote to his brother: " Peddling is a hard place to serve God, but a capital one to serve Mammon.

" Near the end of his life, he fictionalized this experience in his book New Connecticut, originally circulated only among friends before its publication in 1881.