The many faces of Little Women

Yesterday, the girls from Gatepost were getting ready to enjoy their regular Wednesday morning working-breakfast** at the Colonial Inn, when we happened to bump into one of our favorite people, Jan Turnquist, Director of the Orchard House.


Jan was accompanied by a friend and also two guests from Japan who had come all the way to Concord to visit the home of "Little Women".  Additionally, they had brought with them Japanese editions of Louisa's work, which were more than a little interesting to see.


Since its original publication in 1868, "Little Women" has never been out of print and has been translated into more than 50 languages. It's nice to know that 19th-century Concord is still relevant two centuries later and crosses the culture barrier with ease. So this got us to thinking about all the editions of Alcott's most famous book that have been published through the years. Here are just a few that caught our eye...

These are covers from the Korean manga-style series of "Little Women"
also translated or known as "Little Ladies".

This one looks to be Japanese. We can only assume that's "Laurie"

with the, uh, lizard on his shoulder (somehow we missed that part in the book)  

and the saucy looking "Jo" pulling on his tie.

Here are two Chinese versions, both marketed towards young adults.

A rare, first edition print of the U.S. 1951 children's illustrated hardcover.
Check your bookshelves for this one!

Love this! It was released in the US as comic book plus 45 record. Date unknown. 

Penguin put out some unique covers.

But this last one, also published by Penguin in 1989 and again in 2007, deserves the largest image as it's by far the weirdest. Like, really, really weird. 

Were we right?? Oh, and here's the best part - you can still purchase it through Amazon. You know you want to! 




Do you have any images of unique "Little Women" book covers you'd like to share? Send them to info@gateposttours, or post them on our Facebook page!





** the "working" part of working-breakfast to be translated in the very loosest sense possible

John Matteson, Margaret Fuller and what the gals from Gatepost got up to on Sunday...

John, taking questions from the audience

Some serious literary geekery was afoot yesterday at The Concord Bookshop. 


While anything to do with Margaret Fuller would naturally attract a crowd of historians and Transcendentalists, we were delighted to see this event filled to capacity. Even those prompt souls who had arrived on time were left standing along the edges, craning their necks around bookshelves to get a better view of the podium.


Good thing we got there early. 45 minutes early! Which was just about enough time to find seats and then watch the rapid proliferation of eager, chatty guests.


And the reason for all these erudite enthusiasts? Well that can be explained by the presence of John Matteson, (accompanied by his lovely wife, Michelle) who is the author of a brand new book on Fuller and her short but significant life. 


There have been lots of biographies written on Sarah Margaret Fuller - with good reason - but Matteson's approach of highlighting the many facets of Fuller is unique among those who have sought to encapsulate this singular woman's life. A daunting task, yet handled with brilliant aplomb in John's latest achievement: The Lives of Margaret Fuller.


Beginning with the prologue, John read a few excerpts from his book - a real treat to hear in the author's own voice. Some high-caliber questions from the audience followed, to which John responded with humor, charm and the indisputable impression that, here is a man who knows his stuff!


Yet, we especially love how accessible this book is. As Mr. Matteson himself remarked yesterday, he enjoys delivering solid, historical facts using the voice of a novel. And we're thoroughly enjoying reading it.


If you'd like to know more about this remarkable woman and why she's such an important figure in American literary history, we highly recommend The Lives of Margaret Fuller. The Concord Bookshop has a decent supply (at least, they did before the mob scene) so drop in or give them a call if you're looking for a copy. 


For you Louisa fans, you might also be interested in John's other book, the superb Eden's Outcasts.


Oh, and by the way Mr. Matteson, as if we didn't admire you enough what with your Pulitzer prize, and your amazing writing and funny, smart personality, we just want you to know that our already good opinion of you sky-rocketed yesterday when you admitted to being a Red Sox fan.  Who lives in New York.


Many thanks for the exceptional afternoon AND the awesome new book!

John Matteson was kind enough to pose
with us & sign our books as we tried not to 
overwhelm him with our exuberant, geeky glee.

PS - Don't forget about the next great event this Friday -  
Historian Richard Smith will be presenting:

"Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Many Revolutions of Lexington and Concord" 

Click the lecture title for more info from the Lexington Historical Society

A trifecta of Transcendentalism

We are ALL about being Transcendental groupies the next two weeks! 


Historian Richard Smith and independent scholar Rob Velella never fail to impress us with their charm, speaking skills and astonishing knowledge of their subject matter. Definitely two of our most favorite geeks (and trust us, we know a lot of those!) 


The name John Matteson is probably familiar to any Louisa May Alcott fan as the author of "Eden's Outcasts". We look forward to seeing him in person and hearing more about his newest book on Margaret Fuller!

"Beautiful Types: Transcendentalism at Mount Auburn" 


Saturday, January 28th from 3-4 pm
Join Rob Velella in Story Chapel for an illustrated talk on Mount Auburn’s connections to the Transcendentalism movement, from its beginnings as a religious movement to its role in literature. Several Transcendentalists are memorialized here, including Margaret Fuller, Frederic Henry Hedge, and Christopher Pearse Cranch.








John Matteson, "The Lives of Margaret Fuller"  


Sunday, January 29th at 3:00 pm.
Please join us as we welcome back to the Bookshop Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Matteson, discussing his latest book, 
"The Lives of Margaret Fuller".

John Matteson is a full professor of English and legal writing at The John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for his first book, "Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott".

"Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Many Revolutions of Lexington and Concord" 

Friday, February 3rd at 8:00 pm

In this lecture, Historian Richard Smith will discuss the literary and spiritual connections between the two men and their two towns. How did Parker and Emerson use their revolutionary heritage to help change American literature and thought, as well as affect the Anti-slavery Movement of the 1850's. Lexington and Concord's rebellious ways did not end with the American Revolution!

Eat, drink and be better

We've got some sad news... 
**This event has been cancelled**


But don't worry, we've got plenty of 
great tours and events coming up. 
Stay tuned and keep following!

Join us 7 pm, Friday, February 10th at Concord's Colonial Inn 

for a one-night-stand of irreverence, drinking, hilarious history and....rum! 

Entertaining with Emeril Lagasse!

Presenting himself as the irresistible Ambrose Gosling, founder of Gosling's Rum, we dare you - man or woman - not to develop a crush on this self-proclaimed scalawag who has performed for Clint Eastwood, Rudy Giuliani, Julia Roberts, Regis and even Queen Elizabeth II!

Ambrose will tempt you with racy pictures, saucy songs, and dueling tales over jilted lovers. You'll be infatuated with the naughty side of Benjamin Franklin, his dating advice, and a kissing machine!

Throughout the night, allow yourself to be utterly seduced by spirits - Rum Punch, Madeira and Mr. Gosling's most famous creation, the Dark n' Stormy. Indulge your hunger by succumbing to alluring appetizers from the Colonial Inn's talented culinary team and then enter our drawing to win a prize! You'll be smitten with Dinner-for-One from the Colonial Inn, or a delightfully disparaging tin of Bittersweets from despair.com

Just $29 per person - includes hors d'oeuvres, drink samples and entertainment!

                         Call 978-371-2908 x 544 

and give in to an evening you won't regret in the morning! 

Anti-Valentines Day 2012

It's not bitter. It's better.

Scroll down to learn more about your host. He's not just another pretty face! 

This multi-talented man can also

Saber a bottle of champagne (and teach you how to do it too!)

Wear a wig and a skirt and STILL look good

Eat fried grasshoppers on CBS

Fling a fireball and not get singed

And ski in 18th-century clothing without falling down!

Last, a few comments from others who have shared an evening with our fella...

'Interesting - entertaining - knowledgeable - intelligent - personable...' 

Vincent Farincelli - Whisky Tasting in Grenwich at which Regis Philburn attended

"....should be paid $1million per year. He is amazing & funny!"

"He was informative, FUNNY and a lot of fun. What a gem!"

"He did an absolutely fabulous job. He is the BOMB!!"

"Informative, comical, exciting and friendly "

“If history was this funny I would have done better in school. Our guests loved you –can’t wait to have you back next year!!” - Harvard Museum

So go on! Delight in a night of dalliance and reserve 

your spot now by calling 978-371-2908 x 544

They came. They saw. They Concord.

Wow - what a month so far! A fantastic whirlwind of tours, stories, walks in the dark and heaps of new friends!


Many thanks to everyone from North Dakota, Rhode Island, Washington, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and even Australia who made the pilgrimage to Concord and delighted us with their company, interesting tales, generous smiles and photos.


Below you'll find just a few of the things our visitors "Concord" while on one or another of our tours...


Enjoy!

Author's Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. 

(No, no. Not THAT Sleepy Hollow - the one with the headless fella is in NY.)

Well over a million people visit the Old North Bridge every year. 

Good thing they don't all come at the same time.

Oh, Concord. Stop showing off and being so darn picturesque already! 

Ditto.

More of Sleepy Hollow. We only recently learned that you can still 

buy a plot here. Is it wrong that Joan was very excited about that?

Speaking of Joan, here she is with the girls from Park Tudor on a literary tour. 

Could they have been more charming and adorable? Nope! Perfect. Loved them all!

One of the windows in Henry's replica cabin out at Walden Pond. Since 

there were only two windows, that's 50% of the view right there.

This view of Walden from the beach ain't too shabby either.

Quick author's (blogger's?) note on these last few pictures:

First off, we're not ghost hunters, nor is that the point of our haunted walk. We're 

historians with a healthy amount of skepticism who happen to enjoy old, mysterious stories. 

We make a clear distinction between legend and history during our tours because we've 

found that truth is often a lot creepier than fiction.

But having said that, we LOVE the idea that some people come along and look for 

ghosts on their own. These pictures were sent to us by guests who did just 

that, so we thought it would be fun to share them here! 

Hmm... the white orb hovering just above the Colonial Inn sure looks 

like the moon, but we're forced to concede that, actually, it's not. 

The moon that night was still rising in the east when this photo 

was taken, and this is facing northwest.

The supposedly haunted Room 24 at the Colonial Inn. (Upper two windows)

There's so much history to this portion of the building that it's

hardly surprising people claim to have seen ghosts here!

Old Hill Burial Ground and orb (upper left)

Though this picture was taken in Boston, not Concord, we thought it was

just so pretty and reminded us of snow falling on the gravestones. 

Do you have photos to share of your visit in Concord? Send them to info@gateposttours.com  - We'd love to post them here or on our Facebook page!

And if you haven't taken a ghost tour with us yet, but would like to, there are still spots available on this Saturday's (the 29th) Ghosts in the Gloaming, at 8pm. 

Send us an email or call 978.399.8229 to make a reservation!

For those of you from out of town, book a room at the Colonial Inn and 

our tour is included as part of their Haunted Happenings package. 

Let us know if you stayed in Room 24! 

Last, many thanks to our new friends Deb, Doris, 

Jenny and Jan for the wonderful pictures!

It's October. Get yer ghost on!

Though we've been quiet on the blog-front, it's only because we've been geeking out so hard with tours, research and many, many lovely books to read. In fact, our current favorite, Death In Early America, is geekishly unputdownable, while providing excellent fodder for our most recent tour offering: Ghosts in the Gloaming.

We know. How cliche to offer a haunted tour in October. But really, it's not like July is idyllically ideal (Phantoms on the 4th?) or that peoples' thoughts naturally turn to ghosts during the December holiday and Christmas season. Well, except for yours, Mr. Dickens.

In any case, it's become difficult to overlook all the spooky jiggery-pokery that's gone down in Concord over the last 375 years.

Just for kicks, let's trot out this charming sample from 1845, shall we?

"I never saw nor imagined a spectacle of such perfect horror. The rigidity...was dreadful to behold. Her arms had stiffened in the act of struggling; and were bent before her with the hands clenched. She was the very image of death-agony; and when the men tried to compose her figure, her arms would still return to that same position; indeed it was almost impossible to force them out of it for an instant. One of the men put his foot upon her arm, for the purpose of reducing it by her side; but, in a moment, it rose again... It is impossible to express the effect of it; it seemed as if she would keep in the same posture in the grave and that her skeleton would keep it too, and that when she rose at the day of Judgement, it would be in the same attitude."

Ah, Nathaniel Hawthorne. You melancholy man! 

Rather than a dark bit of fiction however, this gruesome imagery is taken directly from Hawthorne's own journal while he lived here at the Old Manse. He was describing the recovery of the body of young Martha Hunt - a neighbor and school teacher - who apparently came to the irrevocable conclusion that throwing herself into the river was a far more enticing prospect than carrying on in this life. For Nathaniel, it became almost like a real-life haunting as the entire episode affected him so strongly. Not to mention, a truly bizarre twist in this story turned up during our research. It would appear that Ms. Hunt wasn't the only female in her family to perish beneath the cold waters of the Concord river...

Oooo. Good stuff, isn't it? 90 minutes of ghost stories, burial customs, haunted places and graveyards that feature lost riders, ethereal ministers, disturbed damsels and um...chamberpots.

If you think you're ready for more, give us a call and we'll give you - a flashlight! All the better to see where you're going while we explore Concord and all her creepy tales after dark.

10 reasons to take a walking tour of Concord with Gatepost Tours

Don't let Henry's somber face fool you.
This man had a serious sense of humor!

1. We can cover 10,000 years of history in 90 minutes without even breaking a sweat. Don't worry though, you'll mostly only hear about 375 of them.

2. Learning some historic stuff is a great way to impress your friends at parties.

3. We promise you'll never be able to look at Henry David Thoreau in quite the same way ever again.

4. Gatepost tour-guides like to laugh. A lot.

5. A very old graveyard is an excellent place from which to learn about spies and drunk people. 

Perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Smith should be inspecting the
troops rather than the inside of Major Pitcairn's right ear.

6. You'd like to take in some important historic sites while you're here, but have no idea where to start.

7. You'll get a free tote bag. Seriously. It's red.

8. Walking the same ground as Hawthorne, Alcott, Thoreau and Emerson is just so cool.

9. You've always wondered what Concord has to do with George W. Bush. Doesn't everyone?


But by far, the most important reason you should come on our walking tour is that....

10. You'll love how wicked fun it is to learn about Concord! (And to use the word "wicked" like a prah-pah New England-ah)

For more information on how to book this, and all our other tours visit our website. 


Happy travels and we look forward to seeing you in Concord soon!

Monument Square in 1839 and Monument Square today.