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Home » Authors » Richard Smith
Richard Smith

Richard Smith

Richard Smith has lectured on and written about antebellum United States history and 19th century American literature since 1995. He has worked in Concord as a public historian and Living History Interpreter for 25 years. He has written eight books for Applewood Books and is a regular contributor to Discover Concord.

Articles

ARTICLES

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The President and The Sage: Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson

April 25, 2025
Richard Smith
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As tensions between the North and South increased throughout the 1850s, Ralph Waldo Emerson, like many Americans, was becoming more resigned to the prospect of civil war. He was convinced that the “insanity” of the South’s attachment to slavery would soon tear the nation apart.


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Prophets of Truth and Enchantment: Thomas Carlyle and the Transcendentalists

August 29, 2024
Richard Smith
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Of all the writers and philosophers who influenced the New England Transcendentalists, none had a bigger impact than Thomas Carlyle. Born in Scotland in 1795, as an essayist, historian, and philosopher, Carlyle had a profound influence on the 19th century, not just in the United Kingdom, but also in America, particularly with the writers in Concord, Massachusetts. 

Virtually every member of the Transcendentalist circle read Carlyle’s writings with great enthusiasm; Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson, Theodore Parker, William Henry Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Frederic Henry Hedge, George Ripley, and Henry Thoreau all drew inspiration from Carlyle. In particular, it was his writings on Germanic literature that lit a flame under the Transcendentalists. 


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When Genius Collides: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe

August 29, 2024
Richard Smith
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By 1845, the careers of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe were on very different tracks. Hawthorne was a struggling writer living in Concord, Massachusetts, while Poe was in New York City, a celebrated writer and literary critic known around the country. Yet, in the 1840s, the two men’s careers became briefly entwined. 


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By The Law of Nature Free Born: The Sons of Liberty

June 15, 2024
Richard Smith
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With the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Great Britain was now in control of North America: the 13 British colonies along the seaboard were safe and sound from their enemies, while all French territory east of the Mississippi, as well as Spanish Florida, now belonged to King George III. For the first time since 1701, Great Britain was at peace. But the empire was also broke. 


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Samuel Melvin

Samuel Melvin’s Civil War: Leaving it to the Fate of Time

March 15, 2024
Richard Smith
2 Comments

This spring marks the 180th anniversary of Samuel Melvin’s birth on April 9, 1844. While the entire family would be deeply and tragically affected by the Civil War, Samuel, the fourth child and third son, went through a particularly hard time while serving in the Union Army. This is the story of his Civil War.


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From English Hay to Asparagus

September 15, 2023
Richard Smith
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By the middle of the nineteenth century, Concord had just turned 200 years old and had a population of around 2,000. Always a farming town, by the 1840s, Concord’s agricultural economy was in flux, and the crops and farms that had been so important to the town in its first 200 years were evolving. By the dawn of the twentieth century, Concord agriculture had changed in many ways, from the people who were farming to the crops they were growing. 


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Painted Leaves

September 15, 2023
Richard Smith
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“October is the month for painted leaves,” Henry Thoreau wrote in 1860. “Their rich glow now flashes round the world.” And while it’s true that other parts of the world experience autumnal tints every year, they seem to be brighter and more vivid in New England.


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Patriots’ Day: Reenacting History

March 15, 2023
Richard Smith
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Spring is a time of rebirth, and with the melting of snow we begin to think about the blooming of flowers and the budding of trees as nature reawakens after her winter slumber. But in Concord, the arrival of spring brings to mind more warlike notions, and the sights and sounds of marching redcoats and militiamen fill the town as Concord commemorates the April 19, 1775, Battles of Lexington and Concord.


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Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death: The Year Without a Summer

December 15, 2022
Richard Smith
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Winters can be long and harsh in New England, but at least we have hope every year that, soon enough, spring and then summer will make their return. But what if warmer weather never returned? That’s exactly what happened in 1816, The Year Without a Summer. 


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Our Eden: Commemorating the 180th Anniversary of the Wedding of Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne

June 15, 2022
Richard Smith
One Comment

On July 9, 1842, a small wedding took place at the bookstore of Elizabeth Peabody at 13 West Street in Boston. After a highly secretive three-year engagement, 38-year-old struggling novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne married 33-year-old Sophia Amelia Peabody, the younger sister of the bookstore owner.


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Featured Stories

  • Battle of Lexington and Concord.Jpg

    Battlefields of the American Revolution: New Commemorative Stamps

    As America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the first battles of the American Revolution, the United States Post Office is commemorating the occasion with 15 new stamps memorializing five turning points in the fight for American independence.
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    Orchard House: A Legacy of Literature and History

    It is rare to find the very home where a beloved feminist author penned her most famous work, Little Women—a novel that has never been out of print for over a century and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Rarer still is to find that home still preserved just as she and her family left it, filled with their personal belongings. Add to that a rich history spanning centuries, and you have Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts.
  • Natl-Park-Service-Map-Insert.p1.jpg

    Minute Man National Historical Park: The Birthplace of the American Revolution

    Few places in America capture the spirit and legacy of a nation quite like Minute Man National Historical Park – located along the “Battle Road” corridor of Concord, Lincoln, and Lexington, Massachusetts. It was here that the first running battles of the American Revolution took place on April 19, 1775. Later, in the 19th century, Concord became the epicenter of a literary, philosophical, and environmental movement that endures today. Revolutions—whether on the battlefield or in the mind—demand vision, dedication, and sacrifice. The same is true for preserving the rich history to be found in these remarkable places.

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