Alcott, LOUISA MAY,

Alcott, LOUISA MAY, a popular American authoress, daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott, a noted educationist, born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, November 29, 1832, was for some years a teacher, began to write at an early age, and published her first book, Flower Fables, in 1855. Her life as a volunteer hospital nurse during the civil war furnished material for her Hospital Sketches (1865), and supplied a background for several of her tales. She had written for the Atlantic Monthly, and published several books before her first and greatest success, Little Women (1868), and a second part (1869), which was followed by Little Men (1871), with its sequel, Jo's Boys (1886). Amongst her numerous other works are An Old-fashioned Girl (1869); Under the Lilacs (1878); An Old-fashioned Thanksgiving (1882); Proverb Stories (1882); Spinning-wheel Stories (1884); Lulu's Library (1885). She died 6th March 1888—two days after her venerable father, who was born 29th November (also), 1799. The father, originally a pedlar, became distinguished as a reformer of education and a remarkably successful disciplinarian, his method being of the gentlest. In other respects, though his friend and spiritual master, Emerson, said he had 'singular gifts for awakening contemplation and aspiration in simple and in cultivated persons,' he was a somewhat helpless idealist and transcendentalist. He wrote much for the Dial, and published Conversations with Children on the Gospels (1837); Spiritual Culture (1841); Table-Talk (1877); Sonnets and Canzonets (1882). See his Life and Philosophy, by Sanborn and Harris (1893); and Louisa's Life, Letters, and Journals, by Cheney (1889).