Oct 27, 2022 - Sale 2619

Sale 2619 - Lot 104

Unsold
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
PURCHASE OF ESTATE THAT BECAME HOME OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT EMERSON, RALPH WALDO. Autograph Letter Signed, "R.W. Emerson," to abolitionist Samuel Edmund Sewall, sending a letter from Emerson addressed to Mr. [Samuel Joseph] May concerning Emerson's purchase of the Cogswell estate [not present], explaining that it was necessary to borrow money for the purpose, and hoping to repay it the following week. 1 page, 4to; faint scattered foxing, few short closed separations at folds, minor bleedthrough from address panel on verso, docketing on verso. Concord, 13 January 1845
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"Enclosed I send an open letter to Mr. May giving an account of the transaction in relation to the Cogswell estate, as far as I am informed. If you please, you shall read it before sending it. I hoped Mr Cogswell would have given you your deed; but he brought it to me. I therefore borrowed the money 850.00 of the Concord Bank for a few days saying to the President that probably on Thursday next, as I shall be in Boston on that day, I might be enabled to pay him. I will call on you on Wednesday or Thursday, in relation to it."
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) was a teacher, philosopher, and father of Louisa May Alcott. In 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson recognized that his friend Alcott had fallen upon especially hard times, so he arranged--together with Alcott's brother-in-law Samuel Joseph May, and Samuel Edmund Sewall, who was executor of the estate of Mrs. Alcott's father--to acquire a house for the Alcott family. In 1845, Emerson purchased Mr. Cogswell's pig farm in Concord, Emerson's partners reimbursed him for their portion of the payment, and the Alcott family took possession of the estate, turning it into "The Hillside," where several scenes in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women took place, and where Nathaniel Hawthorne later moved, renaming it "The Wayside."