This Week on those Wacky Transcendentalists...

I just finished reading Susan Cheever's hugely fun American Bloomsbury, which chronicles the genius cluster that was Concord, Massachusetts in the 1850s. Concord was once dubbed "the biggest little place in America" by Henry James and with good reason. Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville all working and living within houses of each other. Little Women, Walden, The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick-the contribution to American Arts & Letters is staggering.

After tearing through the book I'm now ready for the miniseries. I'm talking old school, 10-12 hours, give-up-a-piece-of-your-life miniseries-none of this 2 night newfangled bullshit.

Think it sounds dry? Think again Scooter. There's sex:

*Alcott lusted for both Thoreau and Emerson-indeed Laurie from Little Women was said to be inspired by one (or both!) of them.
*All the men were hot for Fuller, of whom Edgar Allan Poe once said "there are three kinds of people-men, women and Margaret Fuller". Emerson alone wrote her passionate love letters while she was a guest in his own home.
*Melville was, according to some, ultimately driven mad by his consuming and unrequited affection for Hawthorne. (That could account for the homoerotic undertones in Moby Dick...)

And craziness:

*Bronson Alcott lost the family fortune on a commune, Fruitlands, due in part because not only were the members strict vegans but he also would not allow any use of animals. (You try plowing without horse or oxen and see how much food you grow.)

And a great supporting cast:

*Poe, Horace Greeley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Franklin Pierce all make appearances.

So come on HBO, no more "Sopranos" or "Wire"-how about something new? Or how about you "Masterpiece" (I love how the "Theatre" was dropped like the Fried in KFC-when did theater become unhealthy?) you've done Austen to death, how about some American Masters?