Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel
Little WomenLittle Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
and its sequels
Little MenLittle Men, or Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1871. The novel reprises characters from Little Women and is considered by some the second book of an unofficial Little Women trilogy, which is completed with Alcott's 1886 novel...
and
Jo's BoysJo's Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to "Little Men" is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1886. The novel is the final book in the unofficial Little Women trilogy...
.
Little WomenLittle Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
was set in the Alcott family home,
Orchard HouseOrchard House is an historic house museum in Concord, Massachusetts. It was the longtime home of Amos Bronson Alcott and family, including his daughter Louisa May Alcott who wrote and set her beloved novel Little Women there.-History:...
in
Concord, MassachusettsConcord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature.-History:...
, and published in 1868. This novel is loosely based on her childhood experiences with her three sisters.
Childhood and early work
Alcott was the daughter of noted transcendentalist and educator
Amos Bronson AlcottAmos Bronson Alcott was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and avoided traditional punishment. He hoped to perfect the human spirit and, to that end, advocated a...
and
Abigail May AlcottAbigail "Abby" Alcott was the wife of Transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott and mother of four daughters, including Civil War novelist Louisa May Alcott...
. She was born on November 29, 1832 – her father's 33rd birthday. In a letter to his brother-in-law,
Samuel Joseph MaySamuel Joseph May a radical American reformer during the nineteenth century, championed multiple reform movements including education, women’s rights, and abolitionism. He was born on September 12, 1797 in an upper class Boston area...
, a noted abolitionist, her father wrote: "It is with great pleasure that I announce to you the birth of my second daughter... born about half-past 12 this morning, on my [33rd] birthday." Though of New England heritage, she was born in
GermantownGermantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
, which is currently part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the second of four daughters:
Anna Bronson AlcottAnna Bronson Alcott Pratt was the elder sister of American novelist Louisa May Alcott. She was the basis for the character Margaret "Meg" of Little Women , her sister's classic, semi-autobiographical novel...
was the eldest;
Elizabeth Sewall AlcottElizabeth Sewall "Lizzie" Alcott is the real-life model for the fictional character Beth March in Little Women, a novel written by her sister Louisa May Alcott...
and Abigail May Alcott were the two youngest. The family moved to Boston in 1834, After the family moved to Massachusetts, Alcott's father established an experimental school and joined the
Transcendental ClubThe Transcendental Club was a group of New England intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century which gave rise to Transcendentalism.-Overview:...
with
Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
and
Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
.
In 1840, after several setbacks with the school, the Alcott family moved to a cottage on 2 acre (8,093.7 m²) of land, situated along the
Sudbury RiverThe Sudbury River is a tributary of the Concord River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States.Originating in the Cedar Swamp in Westborough, Massachusetts, near the boundary with Hopkinton, it meanders generally northeast to its confluence with the Assabet River at Egg Rock in...
in
Concord, MassachusettsConcord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature.-History:...
. The Alcott family moved to the
UtopiaUtopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n
FruitlandsFruitlands was a Utopian agrarian commune established in Harvard, Massachusetts by Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane in the 1840s, based on Transcendentalist principles...
community for a brief interval in 1843–1844 and then, after its collapse, to rented rooms and finally to a house in Concord purchased with her mother's inheritance and financial help from Emerson. They moved into the home they named "
HillsideThe Wayside is a historic house in Concord, Massachusetts. The earliest part of the home may date to 1717. Later, it successively became the home of the young Louisa May Alcott and her family, author Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family, and children's literature writer Margaret Sidney...
" on April 1, 1845.
Alcott's early education included lessons from the naturalist
Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
. She received the majority of her schooling from her father. She received some instruction also from writers and educators such as
Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
,
Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
, and
Margaret FullerSarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
, who were all family friends. She later described these early years in a newspaper sketch entitled "Transcendental Wild Oats". The sketch was reprinted in the volume
Silver Pitchers (1876), which relates the family's experiment in "plain living and high thinking" at Fruitlands.
As an adult, Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist. In 1847, the family housed a fugitive slave for one week. In 1848, Alcott read and admired the "Declaration of Sentiments" published by the
Seneca Falls ConventionThe Seneca Falls Convention was an early and influential women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, July 19–20, 1848. It was organized by local New York women upon the occasion of a visit by Boston-based Lucretia Mott, a Quaker famous for her speaking ability, a skill rarely...
on women's rights.
Poverty made it necessary for Alcott to go to work at an early age as an occasional teacher, seamstress,
governessA governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
, domestic helper, and writer. Her first book was
Flower FablesFlower fables was the first work published by Louisa May Alcott and appeared on December 9, 1854. The book was a compilation of fanciful stories first written six years earlier for Ellen Emerson...
(1849), a selection of tales originally written for Ellen Emerson, daughter of
Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
. In 1860, Alcott began writing for the
Atlantic Monthly. When the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
broke out, she served as a nurse in the Union Hospital at Georgetown, D.C., for six weeks in 1862–1863. Her letters home – revised and published in the
Commonwealth and collected as
Hospital SketchesHospital Sketches is a compilation of four sketches based on letters Louisa May Alcott sent home during the six weeks she spent as a volunteer nurse for the Union Army during the American Civil War in Georgetown.-Summary:...
(1863, republished with additions in 1869) – brought her first critical recognition for her observations and humor. Her novel
Moods (1864), based on her own experience, was also promising.
She also wrote passionate, fiery novels and sensational stories under the nom de plume
A. M. Barnard. Among these are
A Long Fatal Love ChaseA Long Fatal Love Chase is a suspense novel by Louisa May Alcott. She wrote it in 1866, two years before the publication of Little Women finally established her literary reputation and began to resolve her financial problems...
and
Pauline's Passion and Punishment. Her
protagonistA protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s for these tales are willful and relentless in their pursuit of their own aims, which often include revenge on those who have humiliated or thwarted them.
Alcott produced wholesome stories for children also, and after their positive reception, she did not generally return to creating works for adults. Adult-oriented exceptions include the anonymous novelette
A Modern Mephistopheles (1875), which attracted suspicion that it was written by
Julian HawthorneJulian Hawthorne was an American writer and journalist, the son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody. He wrote numerous poems, novels, short stories, mystery/detective fiction, essays, travel books, biographies and histories...
; and the semi-autobiographical tale
Work (1873).
Literary success and later life
Alcott's literary success arrived with the publication by the
Roberts BrothersMessrs. Roberts Brothers were bookbinders and publishers in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1857 by Austin J. Roberts, John F. Roberts, and Lewis A. Roberts, the firm began publishing around the early 1860s...
of the first part of
Little WomenLittle Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
: or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, (1868) a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood with her sisters in Concord, Massachusetts. Part two, or
Part Second, also known as
Good Wives, (1869) followed the March sisters into adulthood and their respective marriages.
Little MenLittle Men, or Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1871. The novel reprises characters from Little Women and is considered by some the second book of an unofficial Little Women trilogy, which is completed with Alcott's 1886 novel...
(1871) detailed Jo's life at the Plumfield School that she founded with her husband Professor Bhaer at the conclusion of Part Two of
Little WomenLittle Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
.
Jo's BoysJo's Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to "Little Men" is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1886. The novel is the final book in the unofficial Little Women trilogy...
(1886) completed the "March Family Saga".
In
Little WomenLittle Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
, Alcott based her heroine "Jo" on herself. But whereas Jo marries at the end of the story, Alcott remained single throughout her life. She explained her "spinsterhood" in an interview with
Louise Chandler MoultonLouise Chandler Moulton was an American poet, story-writer and critic.-Biography:She was born in 1835, the daughter of Lucius L. Chandler, in Pomfret, Connecticut....
, "because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man." However, Alcott's romance while in Europe with Ladislas Wisniewski, "Laddie", was detailed in her journals but then deleted by Alcott herself before her death. Alcott identified Laddie as the model for Laurie in
Little Women, and there is strong evidence this was the significant emotional relationship of her life.
When her younger sister May died in 1879, Alcott took in May's daughter, Louisa May Nieriker ("Lulu"), who was two years old. The baby had been named after her aunt, but was nicknamed Lulu, whereas Louisa May's nicknames were "Weed" and "Louy".
In her later life, Alcott became an advocate for
women's suffrageWomen's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
and was the first woman to register to vote in
Concord, MassachusettsConcord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature.-History:...
, in a school board election.
Alcott, along with
Elizabeth StoddardElizabeth Drew Stoddard, née Barstow , was a United States poet and novelist-Biography:Elizabeth Stoddard was born Elizabeth Drew Barstow in the small coastal town of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. She studied at Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Massachusetts...
,
Rebecca Harding DavisRebecca Blaine Harding Davis was an American author and journalist. She is deemed a pioneer of literary realism in American literature. She graduated valedictorian from Washington Female Seminary in Pennsylvania...
, Anne Moncure Crane, and others, were part of a group of female authors during the
Gilded AgeIn United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
who addressed women’s issues in a modern and candid manner. Their works were, as one newspaper columnist of the period commented, "among the decided 'signs of the times'" (“Review 2 – No Title” from
The Radical, May 1868, see References below).
Alcott, who continued to write until her death, suffered chronic health problems in her later years, including vertigo. She and her earliest biographers attributed her illness and death to
mercury poisoningMercury poisoning is a disease caused by exposure to mercury or its compounds. Mercury is a heavy metal occurring in several forms, all of which can produce toxic effects in high enough doses...
: during her
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
service, Alcott contracted typhoid fever and was treated with a compound containing mercury. Recent analysis of Alcott's illness suggests that mercury poisoning was not the culprit. Alcott's chronic health problems may be associated with an autoimmune disease, not acute mercury exposure. Moreover, a late portrait of Alcott shows on her cheeks rashes characteristic of
lupusLupus most commonly refers to the disease systemic lupus erythematosus.Lupus may also refer to:-Medicine:* Lupus erythematosus, a chronic autoimmune disease with several different forms...
. Alcott died of a stroke in Boston, on March 6, 1888 at 3:30 A.M. , at age 55, two days after her father's death. Her last words were "Is it not
meningitisMeningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs...
?"
The story of her life and career was told initially in Ednah D. Cheney's
Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters and Journals (Boston, 1889) and then in
Madeleine B. SternMadeleine Bettina Stern , born in New York, New York, was an American historian and rare books dealer and noted Louisa May Alcott scholar....
's seminal biography
Louisa May Alcott (
University of Oklahoma PressThe University of Oklahoma Press is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. It has been in operation for over seventy-five years, and was the first university press established in the American Southwest. It was founded by William Bennett Bizzell, the fifth president of the University of...
, 1950). In 2008, John Matteson won the Pulitzer Prize in Biography for his first book,
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father. Harriet Reisen's biography, "Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women," was published in 2009, and includes the most extensive primary source material (much discovered since Stern's biography), including Madelon Bedell's unpublished notes of interviews with Lulu before Lulu's death. The children's biography
Invincible LouisaInvincible Louisa is a book by Cornelia Meigs that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1934. It discussed the life of author Louisa May Alcott....
, written by
Cornelia MeigsCornelia Lynde Meigs was an American children's author, and educator.-Life:...
, received the Newbery Award in 1934 for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
Selected works
- The Inheritance (1849, unpublished until 1997)
- Flower Fables
Flower fables was the first work published by Louisa May Alcott and appeared on December 9, 1854. The book was a compilation of fanciful stories first written six years earlier for Ellen Emerson...
(1849)
- Hospital Sketches
Hospital Sketches is a compilation of four sketches based on letters Louisa May Alcott sent home during the six weeks she spent as a volunteer nurse for the Union Army during the American Civil War in Georgetown.-Summary:...
(1863)
- The Rose Family: A Fairy Tale (1864)
- Moods (1865, revised 1882)
- Morning-Glories and Other Stories (1867)
- The Mysterious Key and What It Opened (1867)
- Little Women
Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy (1868)
- Three Proverb Stories (includes "Kitty's Class Day", "Aunt Kipp" and "Psyche's Art") (1868)
- A Strange Island, (1868)
- Part Second of Little Women, also known as "Good Wives" (1869)
- Perilous Play, (1869)
- An Old Fashioned Girl (1870)
- Will's Wonder Book (1870)
- Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag (1872–1882)
- Little Men
Little Men, or Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1871. The novel reprises characters from Little Women and is considered by some the second book of an unofficial Little Women trilogy, which is completed with Alcott's 1886 novel...
: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys (1871)
- "Transcendental Wild Oats
Transcendental Wild Oats: A Chapter from an Unwritten Romance is a prose satire written by Louisa May Alcott, about her family's involvement with the Transcendentalist community Fruitlands in the early 1840s...
" (1873)
- Work: A Story of Experience
Work: A Story of Experience, first published in 1873, is a semi-autobiographical novel by Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, set in the times before and after the American Civil War....
(1873)
- Eight Cousins
"Eight Cousins, or The Aunt-Hill" was published in 1875 by American novelist Louisa May Alcott. It is the story of Rose Campbell, a lonely and sickly girl who has been recently orphaned and must now reside with her maiden aunts, the matriarchs of her wealthy Boston family. When Rose's guardian,...
or The Aunt-Hill (1875)
- Beginning Again, Being a Continuation of Work (1875)
- Silver Pitchers, and Independence: A Centennial Love Story" (1876)
- Rose in Bloom
Written by Louisa May Alcott, Rose in Bloom depicts the story of a nineteenth century girl, Rose Campbell, finding her way in society. Sequel to Eight Cousins.-Characters:...
: A Sequel to Eight Cousins (1876)
- Under the Lilacs
Under the Lilacs is a children fiction novel by Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1878. The story is about two girls , Miss Celia, a circus runaway and his dog .- Plot :...
(1878)
- Jack and Jill: A Village Story
Jack and Jill: A Village Story is a children's book originally published in 1880. One of the many "girls' books" written by Louisa May Alcott, it takes place in a small New England town after the Civil War.-Plot:...
(1880)
- The Candy Country (1885)
- Jo's Boys
Jo's Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to "Little Men" is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1886. The novel is the final book in the unofficial Little Women trilogy...
and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to "Little Men" (1886)
- Lulu's Library (1886–1889)
- A Garland for Girls (1888)
- Comic Tragedies (1893 [posthumously])
As A. M. Barnard
- Behind a Mask
Behind a Mask, or A Woman's Power is a novella by American author Louisa May Alcott published in 1866. Set in Victorian era Great Britain, the story is about Jean Muir, governess for the wealthy Coventry family....
, or a Woman's Power (1866)
- The Abbot's Ghost, or Maurice Treherne's Temptation (1867)
- A Long Fatal Love Chase
A Long Fatal Love Chase is a suspense novel by Louisa May Alcott. She wrote it in 1866, two years before the publication of Little Women finally established her literary reputation and began to resolve her financial problems...
(1866 – first published 1995)
First published anonymously
- A Modern Mephistopheles (1877)
See also
- Walpole, New Hampshire
Walpole is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,734 at the 2010 census.The town's central settlement, where 605 people resided at the 2010 census, is defined as the Walpole census-designated place , and is east of New Hampshire Route 12...
, where the abundant lilacs in the town inspired Alcott to write the book Under the Lilacs
- Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, New York City, where Alcott lived for a time while she was writing Little Women
External links
Sources
- http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3A(texts)%20-contributor%3Agutenberg%20AND%20(subject%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20May%2C%201832-1888%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Alcott%2C%20L%2E%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%2C%201832-1888%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%2C%201832-1888%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20May%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Alcott%2C%20L%2E%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Louisa%20May%20Alcott%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Louisa%20M%2E%20Alcott%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22L%2E%20M%2E%20Alcott%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20May%2C%201832-1888%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20May%2C%20Sir%2C%201832-1888%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Alcott%2C%20L%2E%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%2C%201832-1888%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%2C%201832-1888%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20May%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Alcott%2C%20L%2E%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Louisa%20May%20Alcott%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Louisa%20M%2E%20Alcott%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22L%2E%20M%2E%20Alcott%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Louisa%20May%20Alcott%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Louisa%20M%2E%20Alcott%22%20OR%20title%3A%22L%2E%20M%2E%20Alcott%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Louisa%20May%20Alcott%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Louisa%20M%2E%20Alcott%22%20OR%20description%3A%22L%2E%20M%2E%20Alcott%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20May%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Alcott%2C%20L%2E%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Alcott%2C%20Louisa%20M%2E%20%28Louisa%20May%29%22)Works by or about Louisa May Alcott] at Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions color illustrated)
- Works by Louisa May Alcott at Online Books Page
The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania...
- Works by Louisa May Alcott at Project Gutenberg Australia
Project Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. The site hosts free ebooks or e-texts which are in the public domain in Australia. The ebooks have been prepared and submitted by volunteers...
- Audio books of Louisa May Alcott's works at LibriVox
LibriVox is an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers and is probably, since 2007, the world's most prolific audiobook publisher...
- Index entry for Louisa May Alcott at Poets' Corner
Poets' Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey because of the number of poets, playwrights, and writers buried and commemorated there. The most recent additions were a memorial floor stone unveiled in 2009 for the founders of the Royal Ballet...
- Bibliography (including primary works and information on secondary literature – critical essays, theses and dissertations)
Archival Materials
- Guide to Louisa May Alcott papers, MS Am 800.23 at Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Guide to Louisa May Alcott additional papers, 1839-1888, MS Am 2114 at Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Guide to Louisa May Alcott additional papers, 1845-1945, MS Am 1817 at Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Guide to Louisa May Alcott additional papers, 1849-1887, MS Am 1130.13 at Houghton Library, Harvard University
Other
- The Louisa May Alcott Society A scholarly organization devoted to her life and works.
- Louisa May Alcott, the real woman who wrote Little Women. A web site about Louisa May Alcott which will be the foundation for a documentary film, published media and educational .
- Obituary, NY Times, March 7, 1888, Louisa M. Alcott Dead
- Minneapolis Tribune, March 7, 1888, OBITUARY: Miss Louisa M. Alcott
- Biographical information
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Louisa May Alcott