Ascending Coherence

“ Surely the most visually arresting of the band of eccentrics was, to use Louisa’s description, a “bland, bearded Englishman” by the name of Samuel Bower “who expected to be saved by eating uncooked food.” Mr. Bower had another interesting proclivity. Whereas [Bronson] Alcott saw enemies in cotton and wool, Bower took the doctrine of abstention a step further and espoused naturism, claiming that clothes themselves were an obstacle to spiritual growth. Some uncertainty exists as to how freely Bower was permitted to indulge his disdain for clothing at Fruitlands. By some accounts, he bared all only during strolls after sundown; it has also been suggested that he was pressured into the compromise of draping himself with a sheet. In any event, the mental image of Bower, sheeted or sheetless, in daily contact with the real-life counterparts of Marmee and the March sisters, beggars the imagination. ” - John Matteson, in Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father.  This is from the chapter on Fruitlands, the Utopian community Bronson co-founded in 1843.  Louisa was around 11 years old then.