A walk in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts gives the gift of time with the memories and bones of authors who have shaped our culture.
Author's Ridge is the final resting place of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May and other famous Alcotts, Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as sculptor Daniel Chester French. French is best known as the designer of the Lincoln Memorial, but has a special place in Hoosier hearts. The Ball Brothers of Muncie commissioned French for "Beneficence," the iconic work that is the symbol of Ball State University.
Random grave sites from the top of the hill on a cool June morning at Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. Why Sleepy Hollow? Not sure as I think Washington Irving is famous for Sleepy Hollow, New York, upstate of Manhattan.
Unlike his relatives and compatriots, Ralph Waldo Emerson has a huge rock for his tombstone, a misshapen beautiful piece of stone that no doubt is from the area. A simple plaque adorns the stone.
Hawthorne family members.
Random gravestones on the hill.
The view from the Thoreau family plot. Walden, where Henry David "went to the woods" on Emerson's land, is just a few miles from here.
I was named for one of the March daughters, so penned by Louisa May Alcott, one of the famous Alcott family. They lived in Concord in "Orchard House," a residence occupied at times by other famous New England authors.
