Charles Lane (31 March 1800-5 January 1870), English Transcendentalist and social reformer, greatly aided Bronson Alcott in establishing his Fruitlands community at Harvard, Massachusetts, in 1843. Alcott met Lane while in England in 1842 and brought him back with him to America. Lane provided the capital for Alcott's utopian venture and when it failed in 1844, he lived with the Shakers. In 1846 Lane returned to England for good. His most important work is his favorable "A. Bronson Alcott's Works" (Dial, 3 [April 1843]: 417-453).