A Transcendental Childhood

Alcott’s relationship with Transcendentalism was always problematic: her 1873 essay on the family’s Fruitlands experiences, ‘Transcendental Wild Oats’, troubles genre status while also considering the less practical aspects of Transcendentalism; however, her 1888 essay, ‘Recollections of My Childhood’, takes stock of the impact of Transcendentalist thinkers on her life and work. This chapter therefore explores the claim to a childhood constructed or impacted by Transcendentalism through Alcott’s works; questioning what a Transcendental child might be and from whose perspective such a claim might be made; whether a childhood influenced by Transcendentalist thinking can yet be described as a Transcendental childhood; and how Alcott both honors and subverts Transcendentalist philosophers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in her works.