266 ALCORN ALCOTT ALCORN, a N. E. county of Mississippi, bor- dering on Tennessee ; pop. in 1870, 10,431, of whom 2,768 were colored. It was organized in 1870 from portions of Tippah and Tishemin- go counties, and was named in honor of James L. Alcorn, governor of the state. The Tus- cumbia and Hatchie rivers intersect the county, and the Memphis and Charleston and Mobile and Ohio railroads run through it. The pro- ductions in 1870 were 11,597 bushels of wheat, 226,057 of corn, 14,892 of sweet potatoes, and 2,546 bales of cotton. Capital, Corinth. AU'O'IT. Amos Bronson, an American edu- cator, born at Wolcott, Conn., Nov. 29, 1799. Like many farmers' sons in Connecticut, while still a boy, he was intrusted by a local trader with a trunk of merchandise, with which he sailed for Norfolk, Va., and which he after- ward carried about among the plantations ; and his early readings were in the planters' houses, who gave him hospitality, and, observing his turn for study, lent him books. On his re- turn to Connecticut he began to teach, and attracted attention by his success with an in- fant school. He removed to Boston in 1828, and showed singular skill and sympathy in his methods of teaching young children of five, six, and seven years, at the " Masonic Temple." (See "Record of a School," by E. P. Peabody, 12mo, Boston, 1834; also, a transcript of the colloquies of these children with their teacher, in "Conversations on the Gospels," 2 vols. 12mo, Boston, 1836.) But the school was in advance of public opinion, and was denounced by the newspapers. Mr. Alcott gave up the enterprise and removed to Concord, Mass., where he engaged in study, interesting himself chiefly in natural theology and reform in edu- cation, diet, and civil and social institutions. On the invitation of James P. Greaves of Lon- don, the friend and fellow laborer of Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Mr. Alcott went to England in 1842. Mr. Greaves died before his arrival, but Alcott was cordially received by his friends, who had given the name of " Alcott House " to their school at Ham, near London. On his re- turn to America, he brought with him two of his English friends, Charles Lane and H. G. "Wright ; and Mr. Lane having bought a farm which he called " Fruitlands," at Harvard, Mass., they all went there to found a new com- munity. Messrs. Lane and Wright soon re- turned to England, and the farm was sold. Mr. Alcott removed to Boston, and afterward re- turned to Concord, and has led the life of a pe- ripatetic philosopher, conversing in cities and in villages, wherever invited, oh divinity, on hu- man nature, on ethics, on dietetics, and a wide range of practical questions. Thes^ conversa- tions, which were at first casual, gradually as- sumed a more formal character, the topics being often printed on cards, and the company meeting at a h'xed time and place. Mr. Alcott attaches great importance to diet and govern- ment of the body ; still more to race and com- plexion. Mr. Alcott contributed several papers entitled "Orphic Sayings" to the "Dial" (Boston, 1839-'42), and in 1868 published a volume entitled "Tablets." His latest work, entitled "Concord Days" (1872), contains his personal reminiscences of that town. Louisa May, an American authoress, daughter of the preceding, born at Germantown, Penn., in 1833. She began to write fairy tales in her teens, and her first volume, "Flower Fables," was pub- lished in 1855 ; it was followed by a number of stories written for the Boston journals. Her "Hospital Sketches" (1863), which won for her a general reputation, were made up from letters written home while she was a volun- teer nurse in the army at the south. She be- came a contributor to the " Atlantic Monthly " in 1863-'4, and in 1865 published her first novel, "Moods." She wrote "Little Women," the most popular perhaps of all her works, in 1867. This was succeeded by " An Old-Fash- ioned Girl" in 1869, and by "Little Men" in 1871. ALCOTT, William Alexander, M. D., an Ameri- can author, cousin of the preceding, born at Wolcott, Conn., Aug. 6, 1798, died at Auburn- dale, Mass., March 29, 1859. He supported him- self until he reached the age of 25 by working on the farm in summer and teaching in winter. Subsequently he studied medicine at Yale col- lege, and after practising about four years he engaged with Mr. Woodbridge, the geographer, in the preparation of school geographies and atlases, and in editing the "Juvenile Rambler," the first weekly periodical for children pub- lished in America, and the " Annals of Educa- tion." At this time he cooperated actively with Gallaudet, Woodbridge, Hooker, and others, in striving to effect a reform in the pub- lic schools of the state. He wrote many arti- cles on this subject for the Hartford and New Haven papers, one of which, " On the Construc- tion of School Houses," gained a premium from the American institute of instruction. In 1833 Dr. Alcott removed to Boston, and published his " Young Man's Guide," which has exerted a great influence in spreading important physi- ological principles. For more than 20 years he passed his summers in laboring at home with his pen, and his winters in lecturing in different parts of the country, upon the topics which es- pecially occupied his attention. He visited up- ward of 20,000 schools, before many of which he lectured. He published above 100 books and pamphlets, among which may be specified, in addition to those already mentioned, " The House I Live In," "The Young Woman's Guide," "Young Housekeeper," the "Library of Health" (6 vols.), "Moral Reform," and "My Progress in Error." Dr. Alcott, though the advocate of many opinions which are open to the charge of singularity, was a philanthro- pist of the genuine stamp, and his name is iden- tified permanently with some of the most valuable reforms in education, morals, and phys- ical training, which the present century has witnessed. The amount of labor which he per-
