George Ripley, sometime between 1849 and 1860: a detail from Mathew Brady's daguerrotype of the New York Tribune editorial staff

George Ripley (1802-July 4, 1880) was an American social reformer, Unitarian, and Transcendentalist. He is best remembered as the founder of the short-lived utopian community Brook Farm. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (946x1186, 317 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): George Ripley Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (946x1186, 317 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): George Ripley Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Image:Matthew Brady 1875 cropped. ... The New York Tribune was established by Horace Greeley in 1841 and was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States. ... --69. ... For the United States holiday, the Fourth of July, see Independence Day (United States). ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Historic Unitarianism believed in the oneness of God as opposed to traditional Christian belief in the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). ... Transcendentalism was the name of a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy which emerged in New England in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. ... Brook Farm, a transcendentalist Utopian experiment, was put into practice by transcendentalist former Unitarian minister George Ripley at a farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, at that time nine miles from Boston. ...

Ripley graduated from Harvard in 1823. In 1827 he married Sophia Dana. Graduating in 1826 from Harvard Divinity School, he became a Unitarian minister at Boston's Purchase Street Church, and was active throughout the 1830s in Unitarian theological thought. He was involved in a widely-read debate with Andrews Norton over the necessity of belief in the Biblical miracles in 1836. Ripley contended that to insist upon the reality of miracles was to demand material proof of spiritual matters, and that faith needed no such external confirmation; but Norton and the mainstream of Unitarianism found this tantamount to heresy. This dispute laid the groundwork for the separation of a more extreme Transcendentalism from its liberal Unitarian roots, a division which would come fully to fruition in Ralph Waldo Emerson's Divinity School Address of 1838. In 1836 the "Transcendental Club," nucleus of the Transcendentalist movement, was formed in Ripley's house, where it would continue to meet for years. Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... Sophia Willard Dana Ripley (1803-1861), wife of George Ripley, was a nineteenth-century feminist, a Transcendentalist and later a Catholic. ... Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. ... Historic Unitarianism believed in the oneness of God as opposed to traditional Christian belief in the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). ... Andrews Norton (December 31, 1786_September 18, 1853) was, along with William Ellery Channing, the leader of mainstream Unitarianism of the early and middle nineteenth century. ... According to many religions, a miracle, derived from the old Latin word miraculum meaning something wonderful, is a striking interposition of divine intervention by God in the universe by which the ordinary course and operation of Nature is overruled, suspended, or modified. ... Charles Darwin 1836 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in the New England region of the United States of America in the early-to mid-19th century. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803-April 27, 1882) was an American author, poet, and philosopher. ... The Transcendental Club was the group of New England intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century which gave rise to Transcendentalism. ...

In the late 1830s Ripley became increasingly engaged in "Associationism," an early Fourierist socialist movement. In October of 1840 he announced to the Transcendental Club his plan to form an associationist community based on Fourier's utopian plans. Later in 1840 and 1841 he convinced many of the club's members (though not Emerson) to join him in the enterprise, or to visit the community. On March 28, 1841, Ripley gave a farewell sermon to his failing Purchase Street parish, and in April he formed the community at Brook Farm. In the philosophy of mind, associationism began as a theory about how ideas combine in the mind. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... Brook Farm, a transcendentalist Utopian experiment, was put into practice by transcendentalist former Unitarian minister George Ripley at a farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, at that time nine miles from Boston. ...

in 1847 The community failed after a fire bankrupted Brook Farm and nearly ruined Ripley. His wife had converted to Catholicism in 1846, encouraged by Orestes Brownson, and had become doubtful of his Associationist politics; their relationship became strained by the 1850s. George Ripley began to work as a freelance journalist, and in 1849 was employed by Horace Greeley at the New York Tribune and also edited Harper's Magazine. Together with Bayard Taylor he compiled a Handbook of Literature and the Fine Arts (1852). Later he found a steadier income by publishing the New American Cyclopedia (16 volumes, 1858-1863). In 1861 Sophia Ripley died. George Ripley remarried, to Louisa Sclossberger, in 1865, and was a part of the Gilded Age New York literary scene until his death in 1880. The biography of George Ripley (1882) was written by Octavius Brooks Frothingham. Orestes Augustus Brownson (1803-1876) was a New England intellectual and activist, preacher and labor organizer. ... Photographic portrait of Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811–November 29, 1872) was an American editor of a leading newspaper, a founder of the Republican party, reformer and politician. ... The New York Tribune was established by Horace Greeley in 1841 and was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States. ... An issue of Harpers Magazine from 1905 Another issue, from November 2004 Harpers Magazine (or simply Harpers) is a monthly general-interest magazine covering literature, politics, culture, and the arts. ... Bayard Taylor (James) (January 11, 1825 _ 1878) U.S. author and writer, was born at Kennett Square in Chester County, Pennsylvania. ... The Gilded Age in American history refers to the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction Era from 1865 to 1901, which saw unprecedented economic, territorial, industrial, and population expansion. ... Octavius Brooks Frothingham (November 26, 1822 - November 27, 1895), was an American clergyman and author. ...

External links

• Ripley biography from Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography
• Ripley's career as a writer from Alcott School
• Ripley and Brook Farm from Transcendentalism Web