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Last edited by Tom Morris
September 25, 2023 | 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 and 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".

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: Louisa May Alcott's fairy tales and fantasy stories

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  • Cover of: A marble woman: unknown thrillers of Louisa May Alcott

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  • Cover of: My girls, etc
    First published in 1877 2 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition mygirlsetc00alco

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  • Cover of: The Portable Louisa May Alcott

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  • Cover of: Timeless Christmas: A Collection of Classic Stories and Poems

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  • Cover of: Merry's Museum
    First published in 2018 2 editions

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  • Cover of: The Candy Country
    First published in 2018 2 editions

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  • Cover of: Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands

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  • Cover of: Ethelyn's Mistake
    First published in 2017 2 editions

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  • Cover of: Lulu's Library Volume 2

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  • Cover of: The American Prejudice Against Color

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  • Cover of: Lulu's Library (The/Works of Louisa May Alcott)

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  • Cover of: Old New England: 589 classic books on CD

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  • Cover of: Selections from the Flower Fables

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  • Cover of: Onder Moeders Vleugels

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  • Cover of: Pour le meilleur, pour le pire.. et pour l'éternité

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  • Cover of: A Trellis for Mr. Ellis Or, How I Saved the World from Global Warming

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  • Cover of: Chase, the (Special Sale)

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  • Cover of: Quatre Filles Du Docteur March

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  • Cover of: Nelly's hospital ...

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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