Sylvester Judd (23 July 1813-26 January 1853), novelist and reformer, was born in Westhampton, Massachusetts, and educated at Yale University, graduating in 1836. Soon afterwards he converted to Unitarianism and attended the Harvard Divinity School, receiving his degree in 1840. He settled permanently in Augusta, Maine, and in 1841 was married. Judd was a lifelong reformer, promoting church reform, woman's rights, and temperance. His best-known work is Margaret: A Tale of the Real and Ideal (Boston: Jordan & Wiley, 1845), which combines an accurate portrayal of life in early New England with, through the influence of Unitarianism and Emerson, a picture of an idealistic utopia. Many critics have called it the only Transcendental novel. Judd's long poem, Philo: An Evangeliad (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1850), also espouses religious and social reform.