It was not until she made her great success with "Little Women" in 1868 that the outside world began to take a vivid interest in the father.

From that time his lectures and conversations began to pay; he was seized anew with the desire to publish, and from 1868 until the beginning of his illness in 1882 he printed or reprinted nearly his entire works,--some eight or ten volumes; it is no disparagement to the kindly old philosopher that his books were bought mainly on the success of his daughter's.
The Summer School of Philosophy was the last ambitious attempt of a spirit that had been struggling for half a century to teach mankind.
The small chapel of plain, unpainted boards, nestling among the trees on the hillside, has not been opened since 1888.

It stands a pathetic memento to a vision.

Twenty years ago the "school" was an overshadowing reality,--to-day it is a memory, a minor incident in the progress of thought, a passing phase in intellectual development.

Many eminent men lectured there, and the scope of the work is by no means indicated by the humble building which remains; but, while strong in conversation and in the expression of his own views, Alcott was not cut out for a leader.