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Last edited by Freso
November 14, 2024 | History

Louisa May Alcott

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!"

Born 29 November 1832
Died 6 March 1888

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  • Cover of: Lulu's Library, Volume 1
    First published in 2023 3 editions

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  • Cover of: Pauline's Passion and Punishment

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  • Cover of: Reader's Digest Best Loved Books for Young Readers: Volume Six

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  • Cover of: The lost stories of Louisa May Alcott

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  • Cover of: Vintage Christmas: A Collection of Classic Stories and Poems

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  • Cover of: The journals of Louisa May Alcott

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  • Cover of: Little women abroad: the Alcott sisters' letters from Europe, 1870-1871

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  • Cover of: Candy Country
    First published in 2014 3 editions

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  • Cover of: Women Who Wrote: Stories and Poems from Audacious Literary Mavens

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott: her girlhood diary

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  • Cover of: The Quiet Little Woman: A Christmas Story

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  • Cover of: Words of Ages: Witnessing U.S. History Through Literature

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  • Cover of: The Evil Image: two centuries of Gothic short fiction and poetry

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  • Cover of: Jack et Jane
    First published in 2018 2 editions

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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: Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag
    First published in 2018 2 editions

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  • Cover of: Chase, or, a Long Fatal Love Chase

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  • Cover of: A Louisa May Alcott Christmas Book and Charm: Selected Holiday Stories and Poems (Charming Classics)

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  • Cover of: Comic Tragedies: Written by 'Jo' and 'Meg' and Acted by the 'Little Women'

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  • Cover of: Rosa Em Flor
    First published in 2022 2 editions

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Born 29 November 1832
Died 6 March 1888

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November 14, 2024 Edited by Freso merge authors
August 28, 2024 Edited by Tom Morris Remove bad AKAs
September 25, 2023 Edited by Tom Morris merge authors
July 1, 2022 Edited by AgentSapphire merge authors
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user initial import