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.
“I got the book yesterday, some, let’s see 28 hours ago. I love it! Started reading from the very first page and I’m on the 117 page now, chapter “The Happiest years of my Life.” It reads so well, I love how Abby is portrayed and all those family life details. Everything is so familiar yet new and interesting. I’ve never read any LMA biography before, though Keyser’s Portable Louisa May Alcott gives her life chronology and her view on her life in an Introduction. And there are valuable Memoirs, Letters and Journals contained.”
“I got this book as a prize, won it answering a trivia question about Louisa May Alcott’s $100prize for a story. 🙂 I was so excited about the fact that a giveaway book is being delievered to another continent, all the way to Bosnia (Europe) and started reading it as soon as I got it in my hands. It kept me excited till the end.
I’ve read her Little Women, Little Men, Moods, Behind a Mask and some stories, selected letters and journal entries, but this is the first biography of Alcott that I read. I believe that I will be spoiled for any others after reading this one.
I loved the first part describing her parents, their relatives, friends and their marriage. It helped me understand the roots of her feeling to be the “one destined to fill vacant niches, being a wife to her father, a husband to her widowed sister, and a mother to her little niece.” Someone had to take care of those idealists unable to see the life and people as they really were, unable to clean their own mess.
I enjoyed gossip about her father’s friends Transcendentalists. It resembles a soap opera pattern: Emerson’s wife was in love with Thoreau, her husbands best friend, while her husband was enchanted by Margaret Fuller and followed her to Europe where she got involved with an Italian count and had his child… It helped me understand a real life model for her fictional love triangle in Moods. By the way Susan, I can’t wait to start blogging about Moods. :)”
Mia – I just came across your review and wanted to thank you for it. Some readers found the beginning to be slow and said they weren’t interested in what Louisa was like as a baby, or who her parents were – they wanted to get to the writing of Little Women, which is more than halfway through her life. I felt lucky that Louisa’s life was recorded from its beginning by her father. It is a rare occurrence for a biographer to have such an early and insightful source.
Are you really in Bosnia? Little Women was translated into more than 50 languages… was it popular there?
And I just came across your comment, Harriet. 🙂
Yes, I really am in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe, and your book was delivered to me all the way here. I wish I could tell that Little Women is very popular in Bosnia or Croatia, but honestly, I’m not sure if it’s even translated in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian… I read it in English. 🙂 It is not on the school books lists, neither in elementary schools, nor in high schools.
I studied English Language and Literature at Philosophy Faculty and unfortunately, Little Women was not even a part of American Literature curriculum. 😦 We did study Emerson, Thoreau & Hawthorne, but Alcott was not mentioned. 😦 First time I read Little Women was when I started working on my diploma paper. I chose a topic about domesticity and types of American womanhood in 19th century America and that’s how I stumbled upon LMA & her Little Women. Then I found Susan’s blog and LMA became my pasion too.
Again, I must tell you that I love your book. I even quoted some parts in my paper. I hope I’ll have a chance to see the documentary movie too. I saw the clips and it looks that it is as good as book.
Here’s our winner, Mia, with her copy of Louisa May Alcott The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriett Reisen. Her kitten, Pupi, is reading with her. 🙂
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 
Mia wrote this review of Harriet Reisen’s book:
“I got this book as a prize, won it answering a trivia question about Louisa May Alcott’s $100prize for a story. 🙂 I was so excited about the fact that a giveaway book is being delievered to another continent, all the way to Bosnia (Europe) and started reading it as soon as I got it in my hands. It kept me excited till the end.
I’ve read her Little Women, Little Men, Moods, Behind a Mask and some stories, selected letters and journal entries, but this is the first biography of Alcott that I read. I believe that I will be spoiled for any others after reading this one.
I loved the first part describing her parents, their relatives, friends and their marriage. It helped me understand the roots of her feeling to be the “one destined to fill vacant niches, being a wife to her father, a husband to her widowed sister, and a mother to her little niece.” Someone had to take care of those idealists unable to see the life and people as they really were, unable to clean their own mess.
I enjoyed gossip about her father’s friends Transcendentalists. It resembles a soap opera pattern: Emerson’s wife was in love with Thoreau, her husbands best friend, while her husband was enchanted by Margaret Fuller and followed her to Europe where she got involved with an Italian count and had his child… It helped me understand a real life model for her fictional love triangle in Moods. By the way Susan, I can’t wait to start blogging about Moods. :)”
Mia – I just came across your review and wanted to thank you for it. Some readers found the beginning to be slow and said they weren’t interested in what Louisa was like as a baby, or who her parents were – they wanted to get to the writing of Little Women, which is more than halfway through her life. I felt lucky that Louisa’s life was recorded from its beginning by her father. It is a rare occurrence for a biographer to have such an early and insightful source.
Are you really in Bosnia? Little Women was translated into more than 50 languages… was it popular there?
Best wishes,
Harriet Reisen
And I just came across your comment, Harriet. 🙂
Yes, I really am in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe, and your book was delivered to me all the way here. I wish I could tell that Little Women is very popular in Bosnia or Croatia, but honestly, I’m not sure if it’s even translated in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian… I read it in English. 🙂 It is not on the school books lists, neither in elementary schools, nor in high schools.
I studied English Language and Literature at Philosophy Faculty and unfortunately, Little Women was not even a part of American Literature curriculum. 😦 We did study Emerson, Thoreau & Hawthorne, but Alcott was not mentioned. 😦 First time I read Little Women was when I started working on my diploma paper. I chose a topic about domesticity and types of American womanhood in 19th century America and that’s how I stumbled upon LMA & her Little Women. Then I found Susan’s blog and LMA became my pasion too.
Again, I must tell you that I love your book. I even quoted some parts in my paper. I hope I’ll have a chance to see the documentary movie too. I saw the clips and it looks that it is as good as book.