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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: The Early Stories of Louisa May Alcott, 1852-1860 (Ironweed American Classics)

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  • Cover of: El Fantasma de Las Ninas
    First published in 1982 1 edition

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  • Cover of: Favorite Stories of Christmas Past

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  • Cover of: Good Boy!: The Movie Novel (Good Boy!)

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  • Cover of: Great Women Authors Gift Collection: Little Women and Pride and Prejudice

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  • Cover of: The hidden Louisa May Alcott: a collection of her unknown thrillers

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  • Cover of: A hole in the wall
    First published in 1899 1 edition

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  • Cover of: Hombrecitos
    First published in 1998 1 edition

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

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  • Cover of: Les Quatre Filles Du Dr March

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  • Cover of: Little Women of Orchard House

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  • Cover of: Little Women/Secret Garden
    First published in 2002 1 edition

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  • Cover of: Little Women, Stage 4
    First published in 1989 1 edition

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  • Cover of: Los Muchachos De Jo
    First published in 1982 1 edition

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  • Cover of: Louisa Alcott's people
    First published in 1936 1 edition

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott: Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys: Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys (Library of America)

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott on CD ROM

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott's Christmas treasury: the complete Christmas collection

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott's little instruction book

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  • Cover of: Louisa May Alcott Thrillers

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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