Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888)

Born 29 Nov 1832 in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Died 6 Mar 1888 at age 55 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

Louisa May Alcott is Notable.

Louisa May Alcott was an abolitionist, a feminist, and an author, most notably of the novel Little_Women, published in 1869.^[1][2][3][4]

Family

Louisa May Alcott was born 29 November 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania,^[1][2][4] and then grew up in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts, the daughter of Bronson Alcott and Abby May.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Her father was a noted educator and leader of a philosophical movement called Transcendentalism.^[2] Louisa was deeply influenced by both her parents, especially her mother, whom she looked up to for her bravery and goodness,^[1][3] as well as friends and neighbors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau.^[2][4] Louisa was primarily educated by her father.^[4]

When Louisa was 10, her father moved the family to a commune that was being established called Fruitlands. She kept a diary of her adventures, some of which were quite harsh. ^[10] Some books have been written that tell of her experience. ^[11]

She helped support her family as a seamstress, a household servant, and later, as a teacher.

She never married, but hoped to always be able to care for her mother.^[1][2][4] She did adopt her sister May's daughter, Louisa May Niereker after May died.^[4]

Author

Louisa's first published work was the poem, Sunlight, published under a pseudonym, A.M. Barnard, in 1851.^[1]

Her first book, Flower Fables, a collection of short stories for children, was published in 1854.^[2]

Louisa May volunteered as a nurse during the American Civil War, using what she learned to write of her experiences.
Honored for eternity:
In Memoriam

During the Civil War, Louisa served as a nurse for the Union Army. She used that experience to write for her first successful book, Hospital Sketches, a series of letters compiled and published in 1863 following a near fatal illness.^{[2][3][4][12]}

Louisa continued writing, which led to her role of editor for "Merry's Museum" in 1867, a magazine for young girls.^[1][2] It was her publisher there who encouraged her to push forward in writing Little Women.^[1]

"Little Women", initially published in two parts, in 1868 and 1869, is Louisa's best known novel. It took her only a total of 12 weeks to write.^[1]

In the book, her family was represented by the "March family", and the character of "Jo March" represented her. It focused on the values of middle class domestic life in the United States.^[1] The novel would give Louisa and her family a comfortable life from there on.^[4]

She continued the story of the Marches in Little Men (1871). Over her lifetime, Louisa published 270 different works.^[1]

In 1879, Louisa became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, once school, tax, and bond suffrage was opened to women.^[1] Louisa's support of women's rights was evident in her novel, Jo's Boys, published in 1886, a continuation of her March family stories.^[1]

Legacy

Louisa died March 6th, 1888 in Boston, Massachusetts, and was buried in Sleepy_Hollow_Cemetery in Concord, near Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, on a hillside now known as "Authors' Ridge".^[2][9][13] She had typhoid fever and was being treated with a mercury-based drug, which poisoned her.^[2]

Louisa was inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12} Louisa May Alcott, National Women's Hall of Fame, www.womenofthehall.org, accessed 18 Jan 2018.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 18 January 2018), memorial page for Louisa May Alcott (29 Nov 1832–6 Mar 1888), Find A Grave: Memorial #14, citing Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Orcutt, Samual. History of the Town of Wolcott (Press of The American Printing Company in Waterbury, Conn, 1874) Page 262
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7} The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Louisa May Alcott", Encyclopædia Britannica, www.britannica.com, Published July 31, 2017. Accessed 18 Jan 2018
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH65-GX8 : 8 September 2017), Louisa M Alcott in household of A Bronson Alcott, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; citing enumeration district ED 362, sheet 188B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0538; FHL microfilm 1,254,538.
6. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZCQ-Z44 : 14 December 2017), L May Alcott in entry for A B Alcott, 1860.
7. ↑ "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDS8-H6F : 12 April 2016), Louisa M Alcott in household of A B Alcott, Boston, ward 8, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; citing family 173, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
8. ↑ "Massachusetts State Census, 1865," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQCF-YC1 : 2 April 2016), Louisa M Alcott in household of A Bronson Alcott, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts; State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 954,568.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} "Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH14-GVV : 10 December 2014), Louise M. Alcott, 06 Mar 1888; citing Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, reference v 1888 cn 2052; FHL microfilm 593,737.
10. ↑ Louisa May Alcott, 10: Child Laborer at the Fruitlands Commune, New England Historical Society, accessed 8 May 2022.
11. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Fruitlands-Louisa-Alcott-Made-Perfect/dp/0066238153
12. ↑ Louisa Goes to Washington, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/head-tilting-history/louisa-goes-washington
13. ↑ "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWCR-D76 : 10 December 2014), Louise M Alcott, 06 Mar 1888; citing Boston, Massachusetts, p89 n2052, State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 960,239.

See also:

• Wikipedia contributors, "Louisa May Alcott," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louisa_May_Alcott&oldid=820325803 (accessed January 18, 2018).
• Louisa May Alcott, on LouisaMayAlcott.org
• Louisa May Alcott, Biography.com
• Louisa May Alcott on the Literature Network, www.online-literature.com
• The Two Loves of Louisa May Alcott from The New England Historical Society
• Photo: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017660625/
• "Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KCH2-54G : 1 September 2016), Louisa M Alcott, 1866; citing p. , Ship Africa, NARA microfilm publication M277 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 068; FHL microfilm 419,962.
• "United States Index to Passenger Arrivals, Atlantic and Gulf Ports, 1820-1874," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KD54-B5N : 4 December 2014), Louisa M Alcott, 1866; citing Immigration, NARA microfilm publication M334 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 418,162.
• "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGKV-MPR6 : 22 December 2017), Louisa M Alcott, 1865; citing Passport Application, United States, source certificate #, Passport Applications, 10/31/1795 - 12/31/1905., 133, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• The Works of Louisa May Alcott on Project Gutenberg
• Wikipedia: John_Bridge_Pratt: "John Sewall Pratt, took Alcott as his surname when he was adopted by his Aunt Louisa near the end of her life."
• Wikidata: Item Q185696, en:Wikipedia
• Beach, Seth Curtis. Daughters of The Puritans (Boston Unitarian Association, Boston, Mass., 1905) Page 251-286.
• https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/louisa-may-alcott-spinster-enjoys-valentines-day-1868/
• Louisa May Alcott, 10: Child Laborer at the Fruitlands Commune, New England Historical Society, accessed 8 May 2022.

womenofthehall.org/inductee/louisa-may-alcott/

• [https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/little-women-author-louisa-may-alcott-transgender-man/