Louisa May Alcott

  Louisa May Alcott, an author world-renowned for her classic novels Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys, was born Bronson and Abigail "Abba" May Alcott's second daughter on November 29, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Her father was a prominent Transcendentalist philosopher and educational reformer, well known for his controversial teaching methods that relied more on student involvement and the belief that children should enjoy learning. Bronson Alcott's free-thinking treatment of religious issues as well   as his insistence on equal treatment of all students, no matter what race they were, shocked 18th century American society. Although Bronson was a very loving father, many say he was not very practical or responsible, so Louisa's mother usually took the role of "head of the household." Abigail May Alcott was also a distinguished woman in the abolitionist, suffrage and other reform causes of the period. Just like her alter-ego Jo in Little Women, Louisa had three sisters. Her older sister was Anna Bronson Alcott and her two younger sisters were Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sewall Alcott and Abba May Alcott. Lizzie died at age 22 from complications of scarlet fever, as Jo's sister Beth did in Little Women. Unlike Jo, however, Louisa also had a little brother, but unfortunately he died as an infant.

  When she was almost two years old, her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Massachusetts was the state where she lived most of her life. In Boston, Louisa's father pursued his teaching career by setting up the Temple School in 1834. Assistant teachers were Margaret Fuller and Elizabeth Peabody, both accomplished fellow Transcendentalists. When Bronson Alcott accepted a mulatto girl in 1839, it was a fatal blow to Temple School. The school folded in 1840 and Bronson was left almost bankrupt. So in debt and unemployed, Bronson moved his family back to Concord in 1840, where famous American author Ralph Waldo Emerson helped the Alcotts set up residence. Louisa and Anna were taught by John and Henry David Thoreau at the Concord Academy. Louisa enjoyed Concord's country atmosphere, where she could act out plays she had written with her sisters or take nature walks with Henry David Thoreau.

  In 1843, Louisa's father joined Charles Lane, who shared Bronson's Transcendentalist, pacifist and vegetarian principles, in founding a communal farm, known as "Fruitlands" in Harvard, MA. Yes, Louisa May Alcott was part of a commune! The experiment stressed a mixture of farming and philosophizing--Bronson hoped to give his daughters a greater understanding of nature. However, after six months, the commune miserably failed. Louisa May wrote about her experience at "Fruitlands" in Transcendental Wild Oats, thirty years later in 1873.

  After the commune experience, the family moved back to Concord and purchased, with funds Abigail May had inherited, "Hillside," the house where most of Louisa May's childhood memories date from. But once again in financial straits, Abigail May accepted a job as a social worker in Boston, where Bronson often gave lectures, and the Alcotts moved again. At this point, Louisa started to feel more and more responsible for her family's   financial needs and started taking on jobs. She tried reading for an elderly father and his invalid sister, but after a while, when Louisa received next to nothing for her work, she sought other employment. Louisa and her sister Anna took to teaching small children and mending and washing laundry.

  Louisa had started writing at an early age-as a child she kept a diary at the encouragement of her father. As a teenager she loved writing plays and acting them out with her sisters. In 1851, at age nineteen, she achieved her first publication: a poem called "Sunlight," that she wrote under the pseudonym, "Flora Fairfield." Peterson's magazine paid Louisa modestly for the poem and it was just the start of her career that would end the Alcott's financial worries. In 1852, "The Rival Painters: A Tale of Rome," Louisa's first short story, was published and in 1855, Flower Fables, Louisa's first book was published. Flower Fables was a collection of short fairy-tale stories and poems originally written with the intention of entertaining Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter, Ellen. Louisa also wrote many "blood and thunder" tales, which were Gothic thriller stories published in popular magazines of the time, also called, "pot boilers." However, she always used a pseudonym, usually A.M. Barnard, or chose to remain completely anonymous.

  Also in 1855, the Alcotts moved to Walpole, New Hampshire but Louisa stayed on in Boston to keep teaching and to further her writing career. It was in 1856 that tragedy struck the Alcott family and Lizzie (Elizabeth Sewall), the third oldest daughter, contracted scarlet fever. She did recover for a time, but the Alcotts were forced to move back to Concord where Ralph Waldo Emerson, once again helped the family out, and purchased "Orchard House" for the Alcotts. At "Orchard House" the Alcotts had for neighbors not only the Emersons but also the Hawthornes (Nathaniel Hawthorne also being a famous author). Lizzie's sickness did return though, and she died March 14, 1857. Not long after Lizzie's death, Anna Alcott announced she was going to be married.

  Anna's marriage and Lizzie's death made Louisa return to "Orchard House" so she could comfort her mother at her loss of two of her daughters. Of her mother, Louisa said, "I think she is a very brave, good woman and my dream is to have a lovely, quiet home for her, with no debts or troubles to burden her." Soon after, Bronson Alcott was appointed to the honorary position of superintendent of the Concord Schools (paying $100 annually). However, he was delighted to have a chance to experiment with his theories again and introduced singing, calisthenics, physiology, dancing and more into the curriculum-which caused him to not be re-appointed after the next year, because he was too innovative.

  In 1862, at age thirty, Louisa went to Washington, D.C. to volunteer as a Civil War nurse. She worked at the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown. Like many Civil War nurses she contracted typhoid fever and although she recovered she suffered from the effects of mercury (from the drug calomel-laden with mercury-that the doctors at that time used to cure typhoid) for the rest of her life. Her service as a nurse prompted her to publish Hospital Sketches in 1863, a revised edition of her letters detailing her experience, and Moods in 1864.

  Merry's Museum, a children's magazine was Louisa's next project, in the winter of 1867/68. At this point, Louisa's publisher, Thomas Niles, told her he wanted, "a girl's story" from her. Louisa wrote furiously for two and a half months to produce Little Women based on her own experiences growing up as young woman with three sisters. The novel was published September 30, 1868 and was an instant success. More than 2,000 copies sold immediately. Actually, the country was so impressed with the story of the March family they begged for another volume. April 14, 1869 was the release date of the second volume- more than 13,000 copies sold and she immediately followed up her success with Old-Fashioned Girl in1870.

  In 1870, Louisa and her sister May took time off to travel to Europe. But after that break, Louisa’s career took off. Little Men was published in 1871, Work in 1873, Eight Cousins in 1874, and Rose in Bloom in 1876. During these years, Louisa also became active in the women’s suffrage movement-she wrote for "The Women’s Journal" and canvassed door to door trying to encourage women to vote. In 1879, Louisa was actually the first woman in Concord to register to vote in the village’s school committee election.

  However, Abba, Louisa’s mother, passed away in November of 1877. But good news followed when May announced her marriage to a wealthy European in 1878. May gave birth the following year, November 8th, 1879, to Louisa May Nieriker. Unfortunately, complications of childbirth arose and May died December 29th of the same year. It was May’s wish that Louisa take care of her namesake, nicknamed Lulu. So in 1880, Lulu moved in with Louisa in Boston. In 1885, Louisa and what remained of her family moved to Louisburg Square, Boston-a very prestigious place. By now, the mercury poisoning that Louisa had been a victim of in early life was beginning to effect her health. She managed to publish Jo’s Boys in 1886.

  Her father, Bronson, passed away March 4th, 1888. Two days later, at the age of 56, Louisa May Alcott died. She is buried on "Authors' Ridge" in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemeter, with her family. Also nearby are the graves of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau.