It looks like you're offline.
Open Library logo
additional options menu
Last edited by bitnapper
December 24, 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!"

American novelist (1832–1888)

Born 29 November 1832
Died 6 March 1888

2375 works Add another?

Showing all works by author. Would you like to see only ebooks?

  • Cover of: Little women

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Jo's boys and how they turned out: a sequel to Little men

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Eight cousins

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Little men: life at Plumfield with Jo's boys

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Flower fables
    Cover of edition flowerfables00alcoiala Cover of edition flowerfables00alco_0 Cover of edition flowerfables00alco_1 First published in 1854 448 editions

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: An old-fashioned girl

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Rose in  bloom: a sequel to "Eight cousins"

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Abbot's Ghost: A Christmas Story

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Under the lilacs

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Jack and Jill: a village story

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Hospital Sketches

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: The Mysterious Key and What It Opened

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: A garland for girls

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Good Wives: Little Women, Part 2

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Proverb stories.

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Work: a story of experience

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Modern Cinderella or the Little Old Shoe and Other Stories

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Aunt Jo's scrap-bag.

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott: her life, letters, and journals

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Behind a mask: the unknown thrillers of Louisa May Alcott

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

American novelist (1832–1888)

Born 29 November 1832
Died 6 March 1888

ID Numbers

Links outside Open Library

No links yet. Add one?

Alternative names

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
December 24, 2024 Edited by bitnapper merge authors
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
February 18, 2012 Edited by Niki Stanley merge authors