Louisa May Alcott

Author profile

born

in Germantown, Pennsylvania, The United States

November 29, 1832

died

March 06, 1888

gender

female

website

http://www.louisamayalcott.org

genre

Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

influences

Amos Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Johann ...more

About this author

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Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher, Bronson Alcott and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.

Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau and theatricals in the barn at Hillside (now Hawthorne’s "Wayside").

Like her character, Jo March in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy: "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, " and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences...."

For Louisa, writ...more Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher, Bronson Alcott and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.

Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau and theatricals in the barn at Hillside (now Hawthorne’s "Wayside").

Like her character, Jo March in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy: "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, " and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences...."

For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays, "the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens."

At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!"

Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa determined "...I will make a battering-ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world." Whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.

Louisa’s career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was 22, her first book Flower Fables was published. A milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches (1863) based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, DC as a nurse during the Civil War.

When Louisa was 35 years old, her publisher Thomas Niles in Boston asked her to write "a book for girls." Little Women was written at Orchard House from May to July 1868. The novel is based on Louisa and her sisters’ coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. Jo March was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality; a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype then prevalent in children’s fiction.

In all, Louisa published over 30 books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.(less)

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Louisa May Alcott's Books

Average rating: 3.96 · 822,797 ratings · 14,822 reviews · 318 distinct works · Similar authors

	Little Women (Little Women #1) by Louisa May Alcott, Susan Straight (Goodreads Author) (Afterword) 3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 730,954 ratings — published 1868 — 846 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Little Men (Little Women #2) 3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 19,787 ratings — published 1871 — 26 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Eight Cousins 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 15,656 ratings — published 1875 — 117 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jo's Boys (Little Women, #3) 3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 avg rating — 13,703 ratings — published 1880 — 138 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rose in Bloom (Eight Cousins, #2) 3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 avg rating — 8,787 ratings — published 1876 — 105 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Old-Fashioned Girl 4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 7,152 ratings — published 1869 — 129 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Good Wives (Little Women, # 2/2) 3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 6,079 ratings — published 1869 — 98 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Long Fatal Love Chase 3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 avg rating — 2,885 ratings — published 1995 — 20 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Inheritance 3.61 of 5 stars 3.61 avg rating — 2,589 ratings — published 1997 — 12 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Under the Lilacs 3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 avg rating — 1,951 ratings — published 1878 — 66 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Louisa May Alcott…

Series by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women (5 books)
by Louisa May Alcott
3.960687591875608 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 772,784 ratings

Eight Cousins (2 books)
by Louisa May Alcott
3.9997134905042566 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 24,432 ratings

Una chica a la antigua (2 books)
by Louisa May Alcott
4.035789179365302 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 7,153 ratings

Quotes by Louisa May Alcott

“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Work: A Story of Experience

tags: books

3,968 people liked it

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

tags: inspirational-ship-storms

1,140 people liked it

“I ask not for any crown
But that which all may win;
Nor try to conquer any world
Except the one within.”
― Louisa May Alcott

tags: inspiration, wisdom

769 people liked it

See all Louisa May Alcott's quotes »

Polls

Which book would you like to read for the February 2010 group read?

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

21 votes, 24.4%

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

17 votes, 19.8%

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

9 votes, 10.5%

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

7 votes, 8.1%

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

6 votes, 7.0%

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

4 votes, 4.7%

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

4 votes, 4.7%

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

3 votes, 3.5%

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

3 votes, 3.5%

Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

2 votes, 2.3%

Alice I Have Been: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin

2 votes, 2.3%

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

2 votes, 2.3%

The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho

1 vote, 1.2%

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco

1 vote, 1.2%

Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough

1 vote, 1.2%

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

1 vote, 1.2%

Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon

1 vote, 1.2%

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

1 vote, 1.2%

Paper Boats by Ruth Khanna

0 votes, 0.0%

Rising Sun by Michael Crichton

0 votes, 0.0%

86 total votes

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Louisa May Alcott

Author profile

combine editionsLouisa May Alcott's Books

Series by Louisa May Alcott

Quotes by Louisa May Alcott

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Louisa May Alcott's Books