In June of 1843, Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane, both reformers involved in the Transcendentalist movement, founded Fruitlands in an attempt to strengthen their spirituality through self-reliant, simple living. Joinmed by their families and about a dozen other individuals, the Con-Sociate family (as they called themselves) was to bring about a new Eden by cultivating a mystical and scetic way of life in a rural retreat. Compiling, in their own words, from letters, diaries, and books, and from the comments of friends and associates such as Emerson and Thoreau, Clara Endicott Sears, founder of...