My Friends at Brook Farm Author:John Van Der Zee Sears General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1912 Original Publisher: D. FitzGerald, inc. Description: My Friends at Brook Farm was published in 1912. Brook Farm was founded in 1841 in Massachusetts. Brook Farm, also called the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education, was a transcendentalist Utopian experiment in ... more »communal living. It was founded by a former Unitarian minister George Ripley. The members were given an equal share of the stock in exchange for equal amounts of work. They believed that by sharing the workload they would have time for leisure activities and intellectual pursuits. When fire destroyed a major building on the property in 1847 the colony never recovered. Many considered Brook Farm a failure but the people who lived there found the time invaluable Subjects: Brook Farm Brook Farm Phalanx (West Roxbury, Boston, Mass.) History / World History / General Biography« less