Louisa May Alcott

Born

in Germantown, Pennsylvania, The United States

November 29, 1832

Died

March 06, 1888

Website

http://www.louisamayalcott.org

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

Influences

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

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As A. M. Barnard:
Behind a Mask, or a Woman's Power (1866)
The Abbot's Ghost, or Maurice Treherne's Temptation (1867)
A Long Fatal Love Chase (1866 – first published 1995)
First published anonymously:
A Modern Mephistopheles (1877)

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 As A. M. Barnard:
Behind a Mask, or a Woman's Power (1866)
The Abbot's Ghost, or Maurice Treherne's Temptation (1867)
A Long Fatal Love Chase (1866 – first published 1995)
First published anonymously:
A Modern Mephistopheles (1877)

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. ...more

Combine Editions
Louisa May Alcott's Books

Average rating: 4.01 · 1,379,986 ratings · 22,552 reviews · 447 distinct works · Similar authors

	Little Women (Little Women, #1) 4.03 avg rating — 1,204,640 ratings — published 1868 — 1461 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 3.83 avg rating — 37,740 ratings — published 1871 — 394 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 (Eight Cousins, #1) 4.02 avg rating — 27,151 ratings — published 1874 — 243 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 3.80 avg rating — 24,996 ratings — published 1886 — 260 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 4.02 avg rating — 17,350 ratings — published 1876 — 191 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 4.05 avg rating — 14,039 ratings — published 1869 — 251 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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, #1.5) 3.92 avg rating — 13,581 ratings — published 1869 — 180 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 3.63 avg rating — 4,262 ratings — published 1995 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 3.63 avg rating — 4,104 ratings — published 1849 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	Jack and Jill 3.81 avg rating — 3,391 ratings — published 1880 — 129 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 (4 books)
by Louisa May Alcott
4.01 avg rating — 1,283,838 ratings

Eight Cousins (2 books)
by Louisa May Alcott
4.02 avg rating — 44,512 ratings

Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag (6 books)
by Louisa May Alcott, James Bernardin (Illustrator)
3.61 avg rating — 935 ratings

Lulu's Library (3 books)
by Louisa May Alcott
3.18 avg rating — 44 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

5192 likes

“I like good strong words that mean something…”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

tags: little-women, louisa-may-alcott, words

2465 likes

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

tags: inspirational-ship-storms

2099 likes

See all Louisa May Alcott's quotes »

Polls

December 2015 Revisit the Shelf Reread Poll

1955, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 378 pages

38 votes, 26.2%

1962, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, 212 pages

19 votes, 13.1%

1838, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, 554 pages

16 votes, 11.0%

1814, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, 507 pages

12 votes, 8.3%

1853, Villette by Charlotte Brontë, 573 pages

12 votes, 8.3%

1847, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 507 pages

12 votes, 8.3%

1877, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 964 pages

11 votes, 7.6%

1880, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 449 pages

10 votes, 6.9%

1962, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, 325 pages

8 votes, 5.5%

1844, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, 786 pages

7 votes, 4.8%

145 total votes

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