Join author Bruce Nichols for a lively conversation with local historian and Thoreau expert Richard Smith about Nichols’s acclaimed new book,The Emerson Circle: The Concord Radicals Who Reinvented the World(Simon & Schuster, April 2026). The book looks back to 1840s Concord, Massachusetts, where Ralph Waldo Emerson gathered a remarkable circle of writers, thinkers, and reformers—including Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and Louisa May Alcott. Nichols brings this extraordinary community to life, exploring the friendships, rivalries, ideas, and ideals that helped shape American literature, culture, and identity. Don’t miss this engaging look at the Transcendentalists and their enduring influence on the way we think about what it means to be an American original.

Bruce Nichols grew up in a Unitarian household, twenty minutes from Concord, Massachusetts. During an almost forty-year career in publishing, he served as publisher of both Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) and Little, Brown and Company, the original publishers of Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott. At HMH, he regularly reissued Thoreau’s works.

This event will be held in the Sanctuary of First Parish in Concord and livestreamed on Zoom. Following the talk, a reception will be held in the Parish Hall with books available for sale and signing.

Registration is required for both in person and online attendance, with a suggested donation of $10 per ticket. Find more information and register here. All registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information.

This special event is presented in partnership by The Thoreau Alliance, the Transcendentalism Council of First Parish in Concord, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association (RWEMA).