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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: A Treasury of Christmas classics.

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  • Cover of: Portraits of Little Women: Jo's Story

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  • Cover of: Children's Audio Boxed Set

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  • Cover of: A Children's Christmas Sampler (Classic Literature)

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott on race, sex, and slavery
    First published in 1997 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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

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  • Cover of: Hombrecitos
    First published in 1998 1 edition in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Little Women of Orchard House

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  • Cover of: Little women: the secret garden
    First published in 1998 2 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition littlewomen0000alco_u4h6

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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: The quiet little woman: Tilly's Christmas ; Rosa's tale : three enchanting Christmas stories

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  • Cover of: African American Family Album

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  • Cover of: Beth's Snow Dancer (Madame Alexander Little Women Journals)

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  • Cover of: Jo's Troubled Heart (Madame Alexander Little Women Journals)

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott's Little women at Christmas

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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: The girlhood diary of Louisa May Alcott, 1843-1846: writings of a young author

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  • Cover of: Iyi Esler
    First published in 2000 4 editions

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  • Cover of: Kucuk Kadinlar
    First published in 2000 6 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
June 29, 2022 Edited by AgentSapphire merge authors