On July 13, 2022, Let Genius Burn was invited to speak at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts, the site where the Alcott family lived--and nearly died--for 9 months in 1843.

This episode is the recording of our talk.

The Fruitlands Effect: How the Utopian Experiment Influenced Louisa May Alcott’s Life and Work

The Alcott family spent less than a year living at Fruitlands, but the experience significantly altered their values and family dynamic. Louisa May Alcott would not have been the same woman without the lessons she learned and hardship she faced during her family’s utopian experiment when she was on the brink of adolescence. We’ll look at the influence of Fruitlands on Louisa May Alcott’s life and writings, and the ways the ideas of the Fruitlands experiment to continued to permeate her work and ultimately changed her forever.