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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: Silver Pitchers: And Independence a Centennial Love Story

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott Hidden Gems Collection: Eight Cousins; Rose in Bloom; an Old-Fashioned Girl; under the Lilacs; Jack and Jill

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  • Cover of: Candy Country
    First published in 2018 1 edition in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Tabby's Tablecloth: The Bravery of a Young Woman in Times of War

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  • Cover of: Marjorie's Three Gifts

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  • Cover of: Hombrecitos: Una Novela Historica de Amistad y Amor

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  • Cover of: Kleine Männer: Ein Historischer Roman über Freundschaft und Liebe

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  • Cover of: Piccolo Uomo

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  • Cover of: Gute Elf und Die Prinzessin

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  • Cover of: Lulu's Library, Volume 2 (of 3)

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  • Cover of: Marjorie´s Three Gifts

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  • Cover of: May Flowers
    First published in 2020 2 editions in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Mountain-Laurel and Maidenhair

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  • Cover of: Whisper in the Dark

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

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  • Cover of: Lulu's Library, Volume II

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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