born Nov. 29, 1799, Wolcott, Conn., U.S.
died March 4, 1888, Concord, Mass.
U.S. teacher and philosopher.
The self-educated son of a poor farmer, Alcott worked as a peddler before establishing a series of innovative but ultimately unsuccessful schools for children. He traveled to Britain with money borrowed from Ralph Waldo Emerson and came back with the mystic Charles Lane, with whom he founded the short-lived utopian community Fruitlands outside Boston. Alcott is credited with establishing the first parent-teacher association in Concord, Mass., while he was superintendent of schools there. A prominent member of the Transcendentalists, he wrote a number of books but did not become financially secure until his daughter Louisa May Alcott achieved success.