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George Ripley 1802-1880 Time Period 1810-1850

George Ripley graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1826. During Ripley's days at Harvard there was a period that could be descibed as student unrest due to the disconnected style of teaching used. The students wanted more focus on the needs and benefit of man instead of inherited intangable standereds passed down by pious philosiphers of the past. Ripley was considered a leader and active member of this movement which was an early less organized form of the transcendentalist movement.

In the 1830's Ripley helped define the transcendentalist ideals with his public argument with James Martineau. Ripley and likeminded people beleived that miracles were a non-eccential part of the Bible and should not be taken into consideration when thinking of scripture while the opposition said it was the cohesive keeping organized religion together. This essay helped validate Ripley as an intelectual and a literary leader of his time.

Throughout the 1830s and 40s there was much talk among Boston's intellectuals of reform and utopian experiment. In 1840 Ripley became engrossed in the theories of the French utopian social theorist, Charles Fourier. At a meeting of the Transcendental Club in 1840, he announced his plan for the commune that would be called Brook Farm. In April 1841 Ripley became president of the Brook Farm Association. He and his wife were devoted to establishing a utopian community fufilling the goals of their New English anncestors.. The community, outside Boston, sought to combine hard work with intellectual growth. Ripley officially began his literay career here also starting a journal called the Harbringer. But a crippling fire in 1846 bankrupt the struggling community, and in August 1847 it disbanded, with Ripley assuming all the debts. Overall the expirement was a great sucess despite the fact that the commune was not able to withstand the financial burden of rebuilding after the fire. Brook Farm influenced many of the social reform movements of its day including abolitionism, associationalism, the workingmen's movement, and the women's rights movement. It represented both a test of Transcendentalist dreams and a challenge to Transcendentalist individualism.

After the finnancial failure of Brooks Farm Ripley was forced to take a job at the New York Tribune helping set up Ripley's later successes in life.

George Ripley Biography []