In this post, I would like to acquaint you with Kent Bicknell, an avid Alcott scholar and collector of artifacts related to Transcendentalism. Bicknell has amassed a fantastic collection that tells compelling stories about the Alcott family not found in biographies of this remarkable family. Recently, Bicknell was honored by The Ticknor Society, which awarded him the 2023 Ticknor Society Book and Book Culture Collecting Prize for his “An Alcott Family Collection.”

View pieces of Bicknell’s collection

Bicknell detailed parts of his collection in a 47-page manuscript, which you can download  through this link:
Alcott Family Collection KLB 2023.06.08

Piecing together the collection

In awarding the prize, the Ticknor Society noted: “Through over thirty years of collecting, Kent has assembled an incredible group of primary and secondary source materials related to the Transcendentalists, and Transcendental thought, which share many common tenets with the progressive independent school he helped found and directed for more than forty years in New Hampshire. From that larger collection, Kent chose to focus his entry on art, letters, and family copies of books that reveal the ties that connect the Alcott family to each other, to the larger community of the 19th century, and to our own lives today.”

Biographical information and accomplishments

An independent scholar with work published in various journals, Kent’s main interests are the New England Transcendentalists – Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Alcott Family: their educational pedagogy and how the spiritual traditions of Asia inspired them. In 1995, he acquired, edited, and published the manuscript of A Long Fatal Love Chase, a gothic thriller by Louisa May Alcott that became a New York Times best seller. Wishing to honor the spirit of Louisa, Bicknell arranged for 25% of the profits to go to Orchard House, 25% to Alcott heirs, and 25% to the scholarship fund of Sant Bani School.

Kent Bicknell grew up in central New Hampshire and still resides there. In 1973, Bicknell became the founding head of Sant Bani School (www.santbani.org) and remained a teaching head for 44 years, retiring in 2017. He was a Scholar of the House at Yale University and holds a master’s degree from Goddard College and a doctorate in curriculum from Boston University. Bicknell’s five-decade involvement includes forty-three years on the Advisory Council of the New Hampshire Commissioner of Education and six years as a commissioner with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. He has served as a consultant to schools across the U.S. and in Bhutan, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, India, and Venezuela. He currently works as the Curator of Special Collections at the Gordon-Nash Library, New Hampton School.

Website information

Download the collection manuscript at the link (Alcott Family Collection KLB 2023.06.08) to immerse yourself in the world of the Alcotts.

Please visit the Ticknor Society website (www.ticknor.org) and Bicknell’s website (www.kentbicknell.com).

If you wish to use his material in your work/writing/presentations, check with Bicknell for permission at kentbicknell@me.com

I thank the Ticknor Society and Kent Bicknell for contributing to this post.