Louisa May Alcott is My Passion
Begun in 2010, this blog offers analysis and reflection by Susan Bailey on the life, works and legacy of Louisa May Alcott and her family. Susan is an active member and supporter of the Louisa May Alcott Society, the Fruitlands Museum and Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House.
Summertime is here and I've lucked into some wonderful summer reading. I just started The Little Women Letters, the fifth novel by Gabrielle Donnelly, a British writer. The story is set in modern day London and tells the story of three sisters (Emma, Lulu and Sophie) who are direct descendants of Jo March. The middle …
Continue reading "The Little Women Letters promises to be a great summer read!"
In chapter 3 of An Old-Fashioned Girl, it's obvious that the newness of living the privileged city life has grown old for Polly: Polly soon found that she was in a new world, a world where the manners and customs were so different from the simple ways at home, that she felt like a stranger …
Continue reading "Polly finds the palace not so beautiful after all"
Much has been said about how unconventional Henry David Thoreau was. Although brilliant he was solitary, decidedly different, very blunt, not especially attractive physically, and he was prone to "queer" habits such as climbing trees, imitating bird calls and the like. Yet women did find Thoreau attractive. Louisa May Alcott had a schoolgirl crush on …
Continue reading "Was Thoreau a romantic? Final thoughts on “Walking”"
Listening to "Walking" while I walked (see previous post) only whetted my appetite to dig deeper into this amazing essay. The more I read, the more the text opened up like a flower early in the morning, each truth displaying itself in the light of a new understanding. I feel akin to Thoreau and I …
Continue reading "Continuing “Walking” with Henry David Thoreau"
Summer is such a great time - life is finally slowing down and now I can get back to reading for fun. I've been dying to read An Old-Fashioned Girl since I found the 1926 Brown and Little copy that I so foolishly deposed of the first time. I found an audio version on Librivox.org …
Continue reading "Reading Louisa May Alcott’s next-best book, “An Old-Fashioned Girl”"
from Cozy Corner: Anna Maclean Reimagines Louisa May Alcott BY RT BOOK REVIEWS, JUNE, 15 2011 It is not easy to make a historical figure your own, but that is just what author Anna Maclean has done with the New England author Louisa May Alcott. In Maclean's series, Alcott unravels mysteries that befall her friends …
Continue reading "Learn how author Anna Maclean reimagines Louisa May Alcott"
I don't care what anyone says: I believe that Henry David Thoreau was a romantic. True, he certainly preferred his solitude over the company of others (although he and his brother at one time loved a woman named Ellen, enough to want to marry her, and it's rumored that Thoreau loved Lidian Emerson), but I …
I'm about to treat you to a wonderful interview with John Matteson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Eden's Outcasts (one of the many books on my list begging to be read). Here's a sampling to whet your appetite: What drives the continued fascination with Louisa May Alcott? Louisa combined the best aspects of both her parents. …
Continue reading "Getting to know John Matteson, author of “Eden’s Outcasts”"
There's a terrific article on the Concord Patch written by a licensed Concord tour guide, Harry Beyer. He takes you on a tour of the Alcott family plot at Sleepy Hollow cemetery. Here's a teaser from the article: Louisa May was an active abolitionist, helping to shelter runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. She was also an early …
Continue reading "Take a tour of the final resting place of the Alcotts"
Here's a podcast where you can listen to Susan Cheever talk about her latest book, Louisa May Alcott A Personal Biography, plus another podcast on her fascinating study on the Concord authors. American Bloomsbury. Read about and listen to the podcasts here. What did I think about her books? Read my review of Louisa May …
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 