Largely neglected today in studies of the nineteenth century, William Andrus Alcott was in his time a popular and influential educator, editor, physician, and apostle of dietary and personal health reform. "The least-remembered Alcott," as one twentieth-century scholar has called him, was born 6 August 1798 in Wolcott, Connecticut, the son of Obed and Anna (Andrus) Alcox. His paternal grandfather, John Alcox, first settled the village in 1731, and his mother was a descendant of William Andrus, who was one of the first settlers of neighboring Waterbury. When not pressed for duty on the family farm, William attended the local school with his cousin Amos Bronson Alcott, with whom he altered the family surname. Attending the school was an experience that helped shape both cousins' commitment to educational reform: they disliked the intolerable physical conditions, the limited curriculum, and the rote-learning pedagogy. As an early sign of their mutual interest in...