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Last edited by Tom Morris
March 31, 2017 | History

Louisa May Alcott

29 November 1832 - 6 March 1888

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!"

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  • Cover of: Little women
    First published in 1848 1896 editions in 16 languages — 123 previewable Cover of edition littlewomenormeg00alco3 Cover of edition littlewomenormeg00alco2 Cover of edition littlewomenormeg00alco4 Cover of edition littlewomenormeg00alcouoft Cover of edition littlewomen00alcoiala Cover of edition littlewomenormeg00alco_1 Cover of edition littlewoman0000unse Cover of edition aozorabunko_42307 Cover of edition littlewomenormeg01alco_0

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  • Cover of: Jo's boys and how they turned out: a sequel to Little men

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  • Cover of: Eight cousins: or, The aunt-hill

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  • Cover of: Little men: life at Plumfield with Jo's boys

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  • Cover of: Flower fables
    First published in 1854 448 editions in 1 language — 4 previewable Cover of edition flowerfables00alco Cover of edition flowerfables00alco_1 Cover of edition flowerfables00alco_0

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  • Cover of: An old-fashioned girl

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  • Cover of: Rose in  bloom: a sequel to "Eight cousins"

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  • Cover of: Abbot's Ghost: A Christmas Story

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  • Cover of: Under the lilacs

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  • Cover of: Jack and Jill: a village story

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  • Cover of: Hospital sketches.

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  • Cover of: The Mysterious Key And What It Opened

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  • Cover of: A garland for girls

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  • Cover of: Good Wives: Little Women, Part 2

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  • Cover of: Proverb stories
    First published in 1868 93 editions in 1 language — 10 previewable Cover of edition kittysclassdayst00alcouoft Cover of edition kittysclassday00alcoiala Cover of edition threeproverbstor00alcoiala Cover of edition proverbstories00alco Cover of edition proverbstories82alco Cover of edition proverbstories00alcorich Cover of edition proverbstories00alco2 Cover of edition proverbstories96alco Cover of edition proverbstories00alco_0

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  • Cover of: Work: a story of experience

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  • Cover of: A Modern Cinderella

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott: her life, letters and journals

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  • Cover of: Aunt Jo's scrap-bag: Shawl-straps

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  • Cover of: Behind a mask: the unknown thrillers of Louisa May Alcott.

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September 25, 2023 Edited by Tom Morris merge authors
July 1, 2022 Edited by AgentSapphire merge authors
July 1, 2022 Edited by AgentSapphire merge authors
July 1, 2022 Edited by AgentSapphire merge authors
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user initial import