Louisa May Alcott, American novelist
Louisa May Alcott / Wikipedia
Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She was the second oldest of the four daughters of Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May Alcott. The family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1834 where her father opened an experimental school based on his beliefs in Transcendentalism. The family later moved again, this time to Concord, Mass.
During her early years Alcott was exposed to and taught by such famous Massachusetts figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who were all friends of her family.
Louisa May Alcott held many different jobs in her life to help support her family, including teacher, governess, maid and writer. Her first book of short stories, Flower Fables, was published in 1855. By 1860, she was a regular contributor to the Atlantic Monthly.
Little Women, the book Louisa May Alcott is most identified with, was published in 1868. It was originally published in two volumes and is a semi-autobiographical novel based on her childhood in Concord. She published two sequels to the work; Little Men (1871) and Jo’s Boys (1886). Alcott also published novels under the pseudonym of A. M. Barnard.
Louisa May Alcott never married; she died on March 6, 1888. She was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
