Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals

Louisa May Alcott, Ednah D. Cheney

• Publisher: Read & Co. Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781408677339, 9781528714099
• eBook ISBN: 9781473392441
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

This early work is a collection of Louisa May Alcott's letters, journals, and notes. Published a year after Alcott's death this is a truly unparalleled collection of her personal correspondence and a fascinating insight into the character and thoughts of this much loved author. Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) was an American author best known for her "Little Women" trilogy. An interesting and uniquely insightful look into the life and mind of this esteemed author, "Louisa May Alcott : Her Life, Letters, And Journals" will appeal to those who have read and enjoyed any of Alott's works. Many classic books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
HER
LIFE, LETTERS,
AND JOURNALS

Edited By

EDNAH D. CHENEY

First published in 1889

This edition published by Read Books Ltd.
Copyright © 2019 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library

Contents

Louisa May Alcott

INTRODUCTION.

GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE.

CHILDHOOD.

FRUITLANDS.

THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.

AUTHORSHIP.

THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK.

HOSPITAL SKETCHES.

EUROPE AND LITTLE WOMEN.

EUROPE.

FAMILY CHANGES.

LAST YEARS.

CONCLUSION.

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was an American Novelist, best known for the classic Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys. Alcott was born on 29 November, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA, and was raised by her transcendentalist parents. The family, despite their connections with the American intellectual elite, suffered severe financial hardship and Alcott frequently helped to support the household. In 1840, after several financial setbacks, most notably following the experimental school set up by Louisa May’s father, the family moved to a cottage along the Sudbury River in Massachusetts. In 1843, the family moved again to the Utopian Fruitlands Community, an agrarian commune, dedicated to natural living. They finally settled in a house they named Hillside in 1845. As a result of this peripatetic childhood, Alcott’s schooling was mainly received from her father, who was an incredibly strict disciplinarian, high thinker and advocate of plain living. This instilled a determination and strong work ethic in Alcott, who worked as a teacher, governess, seamstress and writer in her early years. As an adult, Alcott was a strong abolitionist and a feminist advocate, becoming the first woman to register to vote in Concord, in a school board election. During the civil war, Alcott worked as a nurse in the Union Hospital at Georgetown, D.C. She collected all her letters, often dryly humorous, in book entitled Hospital Sketches (1863); a work which brought Alcott critical acclaim. Following on from this success, Alcott wrote several novels under the pen name A. L. Barnard, most notably A Long Fatal Love Chase (1866) and A Modern Mephistopheles (1875). However, Little Women and its sequels were Alcott’s major successes; the first book dealt with the childhood of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy; characters strongly based on Alcott’s childhood accompanied by her own three sisters. The sequel, Good Wives (1869) dealt with their progression into adulthood, whilst Little Men (1871) detailed Jo’s life at the school she founded alongside her husband. Jo’s Boys (1886) completed the ‘Family Saga’. The Character Jo was loosely based on Alcott’s own life, however unlike the heroine, Alcott never married, commenting that ‘I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man's soul put by some freak of nature into a woman's body ... because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.’ Alcott was firmly part of the Gilded Age, along with authors such as Elizabeth Stoddard and Rebecca Harding Davis, she addressed women’s issues in a modern and candid manner. Alcott continued to write until her death on 6 March, 1888. The cause of death is uncertain; she suffered chronic health problems, including vertigo and typhoid, the latter of which was treated with mercury. However recent analysis of her illnesses has suggested an autoimmune disease such as Lupus. She is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts, on a hillside known as Author’s Ridge.

TO
MRS. ANNA B. PRATT,

THE SOLE SURVIVING SISTER
OF LOUISA M. ALCOTT, AND HER
NEVER-FAILING HELP, COMFORTER,
AND FRIEND FROM BIRTH TO DEATH,

This Memoir

IS RESPECTFULLY AND TENDERLY DEDICATED,
BY
EDNAH D. CHENEY.

Jamaica Plain,
June, 1889.

INTRODUCTION.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT is universally recognized as the greatest and most popular story-teller for children in her generation. She has known the way to the hearts of young people, not only in her own class, or even country, but in every condition of life, and in many foreign lands. Plato says, "Beware of those who teach fables to children;" and it is impossible to estimate the influence which the popular writer of fiction has over the audience he wins to listen to his tales. The preacher, the teacher, the didactic writer find their audience in hours of strength, with critical faculties all alive, to question their propositions and refute their arguments. The novelist comes to us in the intervals of recreation and relaxation, and by his seductive powers of imagination and sentiment takes possession of the fancy and the heart before judgment and reason are aroused to defend the citadel. It well becomes us, then, who would ivguard young minds from subtle temptations, to study the character of those works which charm and delight the children.

Of no author can it be more truly said than of Louisa Alcott that her works are a revelation of herself. She rarely sought for the material of her stories in old chronicles, or foreign adventures. Her capital was her own life and experiences and those of others directly about her; and her own well-remembered girlish frolics and fancies were sure to find responsive enjoyment in the minds of other girls.

It is therefore impossible to understand Miss Alcott's works fully without a knowledge of her own life and experiences. By inheritance and education she had rich and peculiar gifts; and her life was one of rare advantages, as well as of trying difficulties. Herself of the most true and frank nature, she has given us the opportunity of knowing her without disguise; and it is thus that I shall try to portray her, showing what influences acted upon her through life, and how faithfully and fully she performed whatever duties circumstances laid upon her. Fortunately I can let her speak mainly for herself.

Miss Alcott revised her journals at different times during her later life, striking out what was too personal for other eyes than her own,...

Table of contents

• Louisa May Alcott
• INTRODUCTION.
• GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE.
• CHILDHOOD.
• FRUITLANDS.
• THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.
• AUTHORSHIP.
• THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK.
• HOSPITAL SKETCHES.
• EUROPE AND LITTLE WOMEN.
• EUROPE.
• FAMILY CHANGES.
• LAST YEARS.
• CONCLUSION.