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nHernmost beloved book is Little Women, but today’s birthday girln(born in 1832) also wrote Little Men, Jo’s Boys, AnnOld Fashioned Girl, and other books.
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nAlcott’snfather moved the family to Boston, established an experimentalnschool, and joined the Transcendental Club with famous writers RalphnWaldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The family also spent somentime living in the Utopian Fruitlands community. Alcott had annamazing education—sort of what we might call “homeschooling”nthese days—with most of her lessons with her father, but othersnwith famous writers and naturalists such as Emerson, Thoreau,nNathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller. All of these famous peoplenwere family friends.
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nAsnan adult, Alcott became an abolitionist—someone who wants tonabolish slavery—and a feminist. (Later in life, Alcott worked fornwomen’s suffrage, and she was the first woman to register to vote innConcord, Massachusetts.) She worked as a teacher, seamstress,ngoverness, maid, and writer. She wrote her first book, FlowernFables, at age 17, and in her twenties she wrote for a magazine.nWhen the Civil War broke out, Alcott worked as a nurse in the UnionnHospital in Georgetown, D.C.
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nInn1868, Louisa May Alcott began to achieve literary success with thenpublication of the first part of Little Women. This story ofnsisters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy was semi-autobiographical, which meansnthat parts were based on her own life with her own three sisters.nLouisa was most like the writer-sister, Jo, but unlike Jo, who getsnmarried and has children, Alcott remained single all her life. n
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nExplorenAlcott’s World
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nHerenare some games and activities from the days of Louisa May Alcott.
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nLittlenWomen is available free, in digital form and for reading on theinternet.
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n“FairynSong,” one of Alcott’s poems, is read aloud here.
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nRent and watch one of the movie versions of Little Women.
