The History of Thought Clubs

Some of the greatest minds of our time have been a member of one.

Throughout history, creatives have not worked in isolation. It is a part of writing that fascinates me: the clubs that emerged where great writers bounced ideas off each other. 

There have been meetings in history that have also spawned some of the greatest novels written. The holiday in Switzerland when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein and the meeting between Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde are two that spring to mind. 

However, the clubs I am talking about met regularly and supported each other's work. Some clubs could exist today if you have a group of like-minded creatives. 

To an extent, Medium was this place for me when I started writing; sadly, it is nothing like that now. I hope that this newsletter bridges some of that gap, primarily through the chat feature Substack uses. 

What can we learn from these clubs? That creating in isolation does not work. We should not be each other's competition but support network.

Transcendental Club

The Transcendental Club was a group of New England authors, philosophers, socialists, politicians, and intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century who gave rise to Transcendentalism.

The club was founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1836. The first meeting was held in Massachusetts on 8 September 1836. 

The club was not just for men but boasted an impressive list of members, including Louise May Alcott, Theodore Parker, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller. 

Interestingly, the name for the club was one that the public gave it; the participants referred to it simply as Hedges Club as this was where they often met. 

The club provided a meeting place for young thinkers who were liberal-minded members. It was also a place of support. When Emerson struggled to get his poetry recognised, the club published their own journal to great acclaim. 

Although the club attendance dwindled over time, the creatives carried on supporting each other through letters and attending each other's lectures. The final publication of the journal occurred in April 1844, when it boasted over two hundred subscribers. 

Lost Generation

This group of American writers came of age during World War I. Together, they established their literary reputation in the 1920s. 

The group was named Lost Generation as it was primarily considered that many of the values writers had were irrelevant in the postwar world. 

The group, however, became household names and inspired some of the greatest works of literature, such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot and many other writers who made Paris their home. 

As time continued, the group of writers all went in different directions, and their work moved away from the postwar feeling. 

Bloomsbury Group

At the same time as the Lost Generation gathered in England, a group of writers, intellectuals, and philosophers also met. The group consisted of Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E.M. Foster, and others. 

The group was made up of friends closely associated with Cambridge University who lived and worked near Bloomsbury in London. 

Although the group often denied there was anything official, they were united in the belief in the importance of the arts. All their work was deeply influenced by literature, aesthetics and modern attitudes of feminism. It is a subject that appears consistently in Woolf's journals. 

The group promoted each other's work and careers and discussed the day's issues. It is unclear when the group finished, but World War I was a contributing factor. It is considered mainly that a version of it extended throughout the lifetime of the creatives who attended it. 

Paypal Mafia

It is, however, not just writers from the early 20th century who formed clubs to help inspire and support each other. One of the most modern clubs is known by the rather amusing title of the Paypal Mafia.

The group is sent to have members such as Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel and many more. The group has members who were former employees of Paypal and have since gone on to found many other technology companies based in Silicon Valley. 

The Mafia has been credited with inspiring the re-emergence of consumer-focused internet companies and was compared to the founding of Intel in the 1960s for its achievements. 

Paypal established tight social bonds between the founders, and it is clear that they have carried on supporting each other as they all took separate paths. 

Work and Companionship

These collective groups are not the only ones that have inspired creative work and companionship. The knowledge that these must have shared would be awe-inspiring. I can think of nothing better than hopping into a time machine and sitting at the back, listening to the great minds of the world debate. 

There is something very romantic that appeals to the bookworm in me thinking about these great creatives meeting together and discussing works such as Mrs Dalloway, Little Women and The Great Gatsby. 

There is no excuse for us not to work with other creatives. We now have the advantage of technology, which means we can meet people worldwide. Would you be interested in a thought club? Are you a member of a club?