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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: Modern magic
    First published in 1995 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Mountain-laurel and maidenhair
    First published in 1903 1 edition — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: My boys, etc.
    First published in 1872 1 edition — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The novels of Louisa May Alcott
    First published in 2001 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The poems of Louisa May Alcott
    First published in 2000 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott: Work ; Eight cousins ; Rose in bloom ; Stories and other writings

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  • Cover of: Christmas Stories
    First published in 2016 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: La pequeña mujercita: La navidad de Tatiana ; El relato de Rosa : tres cuentos encantadores de Navidad

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  • Cover of: Silver pitchers: and Independence: a centennial love story.

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  • Cover of: Silver pitchers, and other stories
    First published in 1997 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Something To Do
    First published in 1873 1 edition — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Thoreau's flute: a poem
    First published in 1950 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Trudel's siege
    First published in 1976 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The uncollected works of Louisa May Alcott
    First published in 2001 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Laurel Leaves: Original Poems, Stories, and Essays

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  • Cover of: Short stories
    First published in 1996 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Works of Louisa May Alcott
    First published in 1986 1 edition — 1 previewable

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

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  • Cover of: Silver Pitchers: and Independence: A Centennial Love Story

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  • Cover of: Spelden, en ander klein goed
    First published in 1880 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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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
June 29, 2022 Edited by AgentSapphire merge authors