ABSTRACT
RIPLEY, George ( 1 802-80). American minister, journalist, and translator. Born at Greenfield, Massachusetts , Ripley graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1 826 and entered the Unitarian ministry. He served as a minister in Boston while editing and writing for such periodicals as The Christian Examiner and The Dial. Ripley belonged to the Tran scendental Club, a group of New England intellectuals who were known as the Transcen dentalists for their interest in European philosophy and literature. From 1 841 to 1 847 he joined other Transcendentalists in founding the Brook Farm community, a socialist experi ment informed by the ideas of the French utopian thinker, Charles Fourier. Ripley later worked with The New York Tribune, where he wrote influential book reviews and translated foreign news dispatches. He also edited the 1 6volume New American Cyclopedia ( 1858-63).
