Several Notable American Authors Are Buried In Rural Massachusetts
By Melissa Mahoney|Published December 23, 2021
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Melissa Mahoney
Author
I'm an east coast girl living in a west coast world. I grew up in New England before moving to SoCal for several years. I then lived in NYC or a year before moving to AZ in 2009. I worked in the entertainment industry for many years of my adult life and have a deep love for photography, writing, and traveling around the U.S. as well as to far-flung locations around the world. Travel is my life and writing about it is a dream!
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Massachusetts is a historic cemetery in the historic town of Concord and is best known as the final resting place for several of the country’s most notable and influential authors. Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau are names that most of us are familiar with. It’s in Concord where they lived and created some of their best work, and it’s in Concord where they were laid to rest long ago.
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is a rural cemetery set in the historic town of Concord, Massachusetts. A portion of it was meticulously designed with curving roads by Horace Cleveland and Frederick Law Olmstead.
Before it was a cemetery, the hilly Sleepy Hollow area, as it was known, was a favorite place for many of the town's residents to walk. When it became Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in 1855, Transcendentalist poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a speech during the dedication ceremony and knew that, one day, he would be laid to rest here.
Ralph Waldo Emerson died in Concord on April 27, 1882 and his grave is marked by a marble boulder. Members of his family are also buried on Author's Ridge. He was most famous for his essay "Self-Reliance."
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was another leader of the Transcendentalism movement as well as an essayist, poet, and naturalist. He is remembered best for his book Walden and his essay "Civil Disobedience."
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote many notable works of literature including The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and Twice-Told Tales. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804 and died in Plymouth, New Hampshire in 1864 at the age of 59. He is buried at Author's Ridge alongside several members of his family.
Among Louisa May Alcott's most famous works is the beloved novel Little Women. She resided at her family home, known as the Orchard House, in Concord and passed away on March 6, 1888 at the age of 55.
Authors’ Ridge at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Massachusetts is a must-visit for history and literary buffs alike. You can view a map of the cemetery here. To learn more about Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, visit the National Park Service website. If you’ve visited this historic cemetery in Concord, we would love to hear from you in the comments.
The town of Concord is filled with both historical and natural sites that are worth visiting. You can learn more in our previous post.
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