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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: Brothers
    First published in 2008 2 editions in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Marjorie's Three Gifts

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  • Cover of: Tales
    First published in 2009 2 editions in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Quatre Filles du Docteur Marsch

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  • Cover of: Pauline's Passion and Punishment

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  • Cover of: Kate's choice: What love can do ; Gwen's adventure in the snow : three fire-side stories to warm the heart

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  • Cover of: A whisper in the dark: twelve thrilling tales

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  • Cover of: From Jo March's attic: stories of intrigue and suspense

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  • Cover of: Pansies and Water-Lilies

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  • Cover of: Rosa in Fiore

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  • Cover of: Rose in Blüte

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

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott's Civil War

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott unmasked: collected thrillers

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  • Cover of: Mountain-Laurel and Maidenhair

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  • Cover of: Comic Tragedies
    First published in 2018 2 editions in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Mysterious Key: And What It Opened

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  • Cover of: Pauline´s Passion and Punishment

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  • Cover of: Baron's Gloves

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  • Cover of: Küçük Kadınlar
    First published in 2009 2 editions

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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