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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: Words of Ages: Witnessing U.S. History Through Literature

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  • Cover of: The journals of Louisa May Alcott
    First published in 1989 3 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The candy country
    First published in 1900 3 editions in 1 language — 3 previewable Cover of edition candycountry00alco Cover of edition candycountry00alcogoog

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  • Cover of: Hao qi zi
    First published in 1935 3 editions in 1 language

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  • Cover of: The Quiet Little Woman: A Christmas Story
    First published in 1999 3 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Little Women Volume III [EasyRead Edition]

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  • Cover of: Küçük Kadinlar
    First published in 2015 3 editions

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  • Cover of: Kücük Kadinlar
    First published in 2016 3 editions

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  • Cover of: Marjorie's Three Gifts

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  • Cover of: Louisa Alcott Reader: A Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School

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  • Cover of: A Christmas dream

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  • Cover of: Silver Pitchers Large Print: And Independence a Centennial Love Story

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  • Cover of: Candy Country
    First published in 2014 3 editions in 1 language

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  • Cover of: May Flowers
    First published in 2020 3 editions in 1 language

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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