Bronson Alcott writes to Charles Lane in Ham, England:
You appear hungry for some of our trans-atlantic “gossip.” But I am in the way of tasting little of this here in my retreat, passing for the most part studious days, meeting my daughters awhile in the morning, and enjoying an afternoons walk, with Thoreau or Channing, both of whom are occupied all their mornings in studyes also. I have seen more of them than formerly during these months, one or other passing an evening at my room once a week or sometimes oftener. Thoreau has a Book [A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers] nearly off his hands, which we think admirable . . . [Ralph Waldo] Emerson, I learn, has been at Ham, and is now at Chapman’s in London. We take a personal share in his success with your countrymen, and England is the dearer to us all on his account. The fruits will ripen in all the coming years.—Thoreau tells me your ‘Dials’ were forwarded by Munroe & Co to Chapman, and have been acknowledged by him in letters to Munroe.
(The Letters of A. Bronson Alcott, 137)
