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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: Spinning-wheel stories

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  • Cover of: Moods: a novel
    First published in 1864 56 editions in 1 language — 8 previewable Cover of edition moodsnovel00alco Cover of edition moodsnovel00alco_0 Cover of edition moodsalcott00alcouoft Cover of edition moodsnovel1882alco Cover of edition moodsnovel00alcorich Cover of edition moodslouisaalcot00alcorich Cover of edition moods00alco

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  • Cover of: On picket duty, and other tales
    First published in 1864 50 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition onpicketdutyothe0033lmal

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  • Cover of: Shawl-straps, a second series of Aunt Jo's scrap-bag

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  • Cover of: Aunt Jo's scrap-bag.: An old-fashioned Thanksgiving, etc.

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  • Cover of: A modern Mephistopheles, and A whisper in the dark.

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  • Cover of: Jimmy's cruise in the Pinafore, etc
    First published in 1888 35 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Little Women and Good Wives
    First published in 1879 32 editions in 1 language — 4 previewable Cover of edition littlewomenandgo0000alco_i1a1 Cover of edition littlewomengoodw0000alco Cover of edition littlewomengoodw0000alco_y1s3

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  • Cover of: Hospital sketches and Camp and fireside stories

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  • Cover of: Comic tragedies
    First published in 1893 13 editions in 1 language — 5 previewable Cover of edition comictragedies00alcouoft Cover of edition comictragedieswr00alcorich Cover of edition comictragedies00alcoiala Cover of edition comictragedies00alcogoog

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  • Cover of: A long fatal love chase
    First published in 1995 12 editions in 2 languages — 4 previewable Cover of edition pourlemeilleuret0000alco Cover of edition chaseorlongfatal0000alco Cover of edition longfatallovecha0000alco_f1t0

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  • Cover of: Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag Volume 4: My Girls

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  • Cover of: A modern mephistopheles
    First published in 1877 10 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition modernmephistoph00alcoiala

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  • Cover of: May flowers
    First published in 1899 9 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition mayflowers00alcogoog

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  • Cover of: Cupid And Chow Chow

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  • Cover of: The Louisa Alcott Reader

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  • Cover of: Little Women: Exclusive Edition

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  • Cover of: Morning-Glories, and Other Stories
    First published in 1868 8 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The inheritance
    First published in 1997 7 editions in 2 languages — 4 previewable Cover of edition inheritance0000alco Cover of edition inheritance00alco Cover of edition inheritance00alco_0

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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