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.
From Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers is the most comprehensive list of archives (minus the Houghton Library collection) regarding Louisa May Alcott that I have seen. If you are researching Alcott and her family and want to read journal entries and letters written by Alcott family members, be sure and check out these …
Great article with lots of pictures. I think the movie looks promising but I remain cautious after the Masterpiece version. What do you think? Exclusive First Look: Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan’s Little Women from Vanity Fair
After selling Orchard House in 1884, Louisa May Alcott invested some of the returns into a summer cottage in Nonquitt, a beachfront community in Dartmouth, MA, located on the South Shore. Here she could take Lulu for a summer respite. She enjoyed several summers there with Anna and her sons who took part in the …
Continue reading "Louisa May Alcott’s ocean retreat: Nonquitt today"
I am pleased to share with you a wonderful essay about the professional lives of Louisa May Alcott and May Alcott Nieriker written by Lauren Hehmeyer, a professor of History and English at Texarkana College. Professor Hehmeyer presented at the May Alcott conference in Paris in June of 2018 (see previous post) and is currently …
Before May Alcott left for Europe to study and become a professional artist, she gave lessons from a studio at Orchard House which her father Bronson made for her. A student of hers created one of the most iconic pieces of sculpture in America: One of his first commissioned works is in Concord: That artist …
Continue reading "Meet the artist to whom May Alcott acted as mentor: Daniel Chester French"
I am pleased to present a most interesting and insightful essay on May Alcott Nieriker by Azelina Flint, an Alcott scholar from Great Britain who organized a conference in Paris last year called "Recovering May Alcott Nieriker's Life and Work." It begins with an intriguing letter written by May to her father, Bronson when she …
Continue reading "A fresh examination of May Alcott Nieriker: Did Genius Burn?"
As a 19th century woman from a well-connected family, nineteen-year-old Abba Alcott was decidedly unconventional. She resisted the idea of marriage, preferring instead to study while nurturing dreams of opening her own school. Abba dreaded the pairing that had been arranged for her with cousin Samuel May Frothingham; his unexpected death freed her from that …
Continue reading "Marmee and Louisa Book Discussion: Chapter Two “Drawing Toward Some Ideal Friend”"
