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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: Little Button Rose
    First published in 1901 2 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: A Christmas dream

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  • Cover of: Pansies and water-lilies
    First published in 1902 2 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Pansies: and, Water-lilies

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  • Cover of: The dolls' journey
    First published in 1902 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: Morning-glories and Queen Aster

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

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  • Cover of: The Louisa Alcott Reader

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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: Lulu's library
    First published in 1909 1 edition in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Flower fables
    First published in 1910 1 edition in 1 language

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  • Cover of: The Louisa Alcott story book

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  • Cover of: Three unpublished poems
    First published in 1919 2 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Three unpublished poems

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  • Cover of: under and Lilacs
    First published in 1923 1 edition

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  • Cover of: Si jie mei
    First published in 1930 1 edition in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Fireside and Camp Stories

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  • Cover of: Lulu's Library
    First published in 1930 1 edition

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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