Louisa May Alcott: Difference between revisions

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832, in [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]],{{sfn|Cullen-DuPont|2000|pp=8–9}} which is now part of [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], on her father's 33rd birthday. Her parents were [[Transcendentalism|transcendentalist]] and educator [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] and social worker [[Abby May|Abigail "Abba" May]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Abigail May Alcott |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/abigail-may-alcott.htm#:~:text=Abigail%20May%20Alcott%20was%20an,famed%20writer%20Louisa%20May%20Alcott. |website=National Park Service |access-date=13 June 2024}}</ref>{{sfn|MacDonald|1983|p=1}} She was the second of four daughters: [[Anna Alcott Pratt|Anna Bronson Alcott]] was the eldest, while [[Elizabeth Sewall Alcott]] and [[May Alcott Nieriker|Abigail May Alcott]] were the two youngest. As a child, she was a [[tomboy]] who preferred boys' games.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/23/louisa-may-alcott-is-a-better-spinster-than-kate-bolick-seems-to-be/|title=Louisa May Alcott, a spinster hero for single women of all eras|first=Jean R.|last=Freeman|date=April 23, 2015|access-date=October 25, 2023|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108114821/https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/23/louisa-may-alcott-is-a-better-spinster-than-kate-bolick-seems-to-be/|url-status=live}}</ref> The family moved to Boston in 1834,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1129.html|title=Louisa M. Alcott Dead|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 7, 1888|access-date=April 2, 2018|quote=The parents of the authoress removed to Boston when their daughter was 2 years old, and in Boston and its immediate vicinity she made her home ever after.|archive-date=January 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106073932/https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1129.html|url-status=live}}</ref> where Alcott's father established the experimental [[Temple School (Massachusetts)|Temple School]] and joined the [[Transcendental Club]] with [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and [[Henry David Thoreau]]. Bronson Alcott's opinions on education, tough views on child-rearing, and moments of mental instability shaped young Alcott's mind with a desire to achieve perfection, a goal of the transcendentalists.<ref name=showalter>{{cite book|first=Louisa May |last=Alcott|editor-last=Showalter|editor-first=Elaine|title=Alternative Alcott|year=1988|publisher=Rutgers University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/alternativealcot0000alco|url-access=registration|quote=Alternative Alcott By Louisa May Alcott by Elaine Showalter.|isbn=978-0813512723}}</ref> Bronson's attitude towards Alcott's wild, independent behavior and his inability to provide for his family created conflict between Bronson Alcott, his wife, and their daughters.<ref name=showalter/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121831612|title=Alcott: 'Not the Little Woman You Thought She Was'|work=Morning Edition|date=December 28, 2009|publisher=[[NPR]]|access-date=April 2, 2018|archive-date=March 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322200417/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121831612|url-status=live}}</ref> Abigail reportedly resented her husband's inability to recognize her sacrifices and related his thoughtlessness to the larger issue of the inequality of sexes. She passed this recognition and desire to redress wrongs done to women on to Louisa.

In 1840, after several setbacks with Temple School, the Alcott family moved to a cottage on {{convert|2|acre|ha|abbr=on}} of land, situated along the [[Sudbury River]] in [[Concord, Massachusetts]]. Louisa described the three years they spent at the rented Hosmer Cottage as the "happiest of her life."<ref>{{cite book|last=Cheever|first=Susan|title=Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography|year= 2011|orig-year=2010|edition=1st|publisher=Simon and Schuster|pages=45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-4PYzxTQVAcC&q=Louisa+May+Alcott:+A+Personal+Biography+by+Susan+Cheever|isbn=978-1416569923 }}</ref> By 1843, the Alcotts moved, along with six other members of the Consociate Family,<ref name=showalter/> to the [[utopia]]n [[Fruitlands (transcendental center)|Fruitlands]] community for a brief interval in 1843–1844. After the collapse of the Fruitlands, they rented rooms and eventually—with Abigail May Alcott's inheritance and financial help from Emerson—purchased a homestead in Concord. They moved into the home they named "[[The Wayside|Hillside]]" on April 1, 1845, but had moved on by 1852, when it was sold to [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], who renamed it The Wayside. Moving 21 times in 30 years, the Alcotts returned to Concord once again in 1857 and moved into [[Orchard House]], a two-story [[clapboard]] farmhouse, in the spring of 1858.

Alcott's early education included lessons from the [[naturalist]] [[Henry David Thoreau]] who inspired her to write the poem ''Thoreau's Flute'' based on her time at [[Walden Pond]]. She was primarily educated by her father, who was strict and believed in "the sweetness of self-denial."<ref name=showalter/> She also grew up around writers and educators such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, [[Margaret Fuller]], and [[Julia Ward Howe]], all of whom were family friends.<ref>{{cite web |title=Humanity, Said Edgar Allan Poe, Is Divided Into Men, Women, And Margaret Fuller |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/humanity-said-edgar-allan-poe-divided-men-women-and-margaret-fuller |website=American Heritage |access-date=December 28, 2022 |archive-date=December 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228182924/https://www.americanheritage.com/humanity-said-edgar-allan-poe-divided-men-women-and-margaret-fuller |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|MacDonald|1983|p=74}} She later described these early years in a newspaper sketch entitled "Transcendental Wild Oats." The sketch was reprinted in the volume ''Silver Pitchers'' (1876), which relates the family's experiment in "plain living and high thinking" at Fruitlands.<ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Alcott, Louisa May|volume=1|page=529|last=Richardson|first=Charles F.}}</ref> She was also instructed by [[Sophia Foord]], who lived with the family for a time, and whom she would later [[Eulogy|eulogize]].{{sfn|Parr|2009|p=73-4}}

Poverty made it necessary for Alcott to go to work at an early age as a teacher, [[seamstress]], [[governess]], [[domestic helper]], and writer. Her sisters also supported the family by working as seamstresses, while their mother took on social work among the [[Irish immigrants]]. Only the youngest, Abigail, was able to attend public school. Due to all of these pressures, writing became a creative and emotional outlet for Alcott.<ref name=showalter/> Her first book was ''[[Flower Fables]]'' (1849), a selection of tales originally written for [[Ellen Emerson]], daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson.<ref name="EB1911"/> Alcott, who was driven in life not to be poor, is quoted as saying, "I wish I was rich, I was good, and we were all a happy family this day."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121831612|title=Alcott: 'Not The Little Woman You Thought She Was'|last=Reisen|first=Harriet|date=December 29, 2009|publisher=NPR|access-date=April 2, 2018|archive-date=March 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322200417/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121831612|url-status=live}}</ref>

When Alcott was young, her family served as [[safe house|station masters]] on the [[Underground Railroad]], when they housed [[fugitive slaves]]. Alcott knew [[Frederick Douglass]] later as an adult.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alcottfilm.com/louisa-may-alcott/life/|title=Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, The Alcotts|publisher=Nancy Porter Productions, Inc.|year=2015|access-date=February 2, 2015|archive-date=February 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203041903/http://www.alcottfilm.com/louisa-may-alcott/life/|url-status=live}}</ref> Alcott read and admired the [[Declaration of Sentiments]] published by the [[Seneca Falls Convention]] on [[women's rights]], advocated for [[women's suffrage]], and became the first woman to register to vote in [[Concord, Massachusetts]] in a school board election.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historyofmassachusetts.org/louisa-may-alcott-the-first-woman-registered-to-vote-in-concord/|title=Louisa May Alcott: The First Woman Registered to Vote in Concord|publisher=History of Massachusetts|last=Brooks|first=Rebecca Beatrice|date=September 19, 2011|access-date=April 2, 2018|archive-date=February 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203173922/http://historyofmassachusetts.org/louisa-may-alcott-the-first-woman-registered-to-vote-in-concord/|url-status=live}}</ref> The 1850s were hard times for the Alcotts, and in 1854 Louisa found solace at [[The Boston Theatre]] where she wrote ''The Rival Prima Donnas'', which she later burned due to a quarrel between the actresses over who would play what role. At one point in 1857, unable to find work and filled with despair, Alcott contemplated suicide. During that year, she read ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'' by [[Elizabeth Gaskell]] and found many parallels between [[Charlotte Brontë]]'s life and her own.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slate.com/culture/2004/03/the-beguiling-bronte-sisters.html|title=Moor, Please: New books on the Bronte phenomenon.|last=Showalter|first=Elaine|date=March 1, 2004|magazine=Slate|access-date=December 25, 2022|archive-date=February 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207141920/https://slate.com/culture/2004/03/the-beguiling-bronte-sisters.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Doyle|first=Christine|title=Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Bronte: Transatlantic Translations|publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press|year=2003|isbn=1572332417|pages=3}}</ref> In 1858, her younger sister Elizabeth died and her older sister Anna married a man named John Pratt. Alcott considered these events catalysts to breaking up their sisterhood.<ref name=showalter/>

As an adult, Alcott was an abolitionist, [[Temperance movement|temperance]] advocate, and feminist.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Norwich|first=John Julius|title=Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Arts|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0-19-869137-2|location=USA|pages=11}}</ref> In 1860, Alcott began writing for the ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]''. When the [[American Civil War]] broke out, she served as a [[History of nursing in the United States|nurse]] in [[Union Hotel (Georgetown)|Union Hospital]] in the [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] area of [[Washington, D.C.]], for six weeks in 1862–1863.<ref name="EB1911"/> She intended to serve three months as a nurse, but contracted [[typhoid fever]] and became deathly ill halfway through her service, although she eventually recovered. Her letters home{{mdash}}revised and published in the Boston anti-slavery paper ''Commonwealth'' and collected as ''[[Hospital Sketches]]'' (1863, republished with additions in 1869)<ref name="EB1911"/>{{mdash}}brought her first critical recognition for her observations and humor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Peck |first=Garrett |title=Walt Whitman in Washington, D.C.: The Civil War and America's Great Poet |year=2015 |publisher=The History Press |location=Charleston, SC |isbn=978-1626199736 |pages=73–76}}</ref> This was her first book and was inspired by her army experience.<ref name="BDA1906">{{BDA1906 |inline=1 |wstitle= Alcott, Louisa May |volume=1 |pages=68–69}}</ref> She wrote about the mismanagement of hospitals, the indifference and callousness of some of the surgeons she encountered, and her passion for seeing the war firsthand.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dromi |first1=Shai M. |title=Above the fray: The Red Cross and the making of the humanitarian NGO sector |date=2020 |publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226680101 |page=26 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo46479924.html |access-date=June 12, 2020 |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029213404/https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo46479924.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Her main character, Tribulation Periwinkle, shows a passage from innocence to maturity and is a "serious and eloquent witness".<ref name=showalter/> Soon after, she wrote her novel ''Moods'' (1864), based on her own experience and stance on "woman's right to selfhood."{{sfn|Elbert|1984|p=118–119}}