It’s out! The first academic study of May Alcott Nieriker is now available.

Titled The Forgotten Alcott Essays on the Artistic Legacy and Literary Life of May Alcott Nieriker, This book is truly a labor of love and I am so grateful to our distinguished editors, Lauren Hehmyer and Azelina Flint for all of their hard work in bringing this book to life.

The book is available through Routledge, the Taylor and Francis Group – for a limited time the The Forgotten Alcott is available at 20% off (far cheaper then Amazon). It is available in hardback and ebook formats.

I am pleased to have my essay included in this work; it is titled Chapter 3 “Little Rafael”–May Alcott Nieriker’s Beginnings–A Biographical Sketch by Susan Bailey.

Many well-known Alcott scholars such as Daniel Shealy, John Matteson and Jan Turnquist are included along with dear friend Kristi Martin, Ph.D., a longtime tour guide of Orchard House, the Manse and the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Here is the book’s description:

This collection is the first academic study of the captivating life and career of expatriate artist, writer, and activist, May Alcott Nieriker. Nieriker is known as the sister of Louisa May Alcott and model for “Amy March” in Alcott’s　Little Women. As this book reveals, she was much more than “Amy”—she had a more significant impact on the Concord community than her sister and later became part of the creative expat community in Europe. There, she imbued her painting with the abolitionist activism she was exposed to in childhood and pursued an ideal of artistic genius that opposed her sister’s vision of self-sacrifice. Embarking on a career that took her across London, Paris, and Rome, Nieriker won the acclaim of John Ruskin and forged a network of expatriate female painters who changed the face of nineteenth-century art, creating opportunities for women that lasted well into the twentieth century. A “Renaissance woman,” Nieriker was a travel writer, teacher, and curator. She is recovered here as a transdisciplinary subject who stands between disciplines, networks, and ideologies—stiving to recognize the dignity of others. Contributors include foundational Alcott scholar Daniel Shealy and Pulitzer Prize winner John Matteson, as well as Curators, Jan Turnquist (Orchard House) and Amanda Burdan (Brandywine River Museum of Art). In this book, readers will become acquainted with a dynamic feminist thinker who transforms our understanding of the place of women artists in the wider cultural and intellectual life of nineteenth-century Britain, France, and the United States.

And here is the Table of Contents:

Introduction by Azelina Flint

Part I The Forgotten Alcott

Chapter 1 “Concordia’s Queen”: May Alcott and the Town of Concord by Daniel Shealy

Chapter 2 “Successive chapters in a romance”: May Alcott Nieriker’s Influence on the Development of the Woman Artist in Louisa May Alcott’s Fiction by Azelina Flint

Chapter 3 “Little Rafael”–May Alcott Nieriker’s Beginnings–A Biographical Sketch by Susan Bailey

Part II The Ex-Patriot

Chapter 4 Armed with a Brush: May Alcott Nieriker as a Representative Woman Artist in Paris by Lauren Hehmeyer

Chapter 5 Alone Together in Paris: May Alcott Nieriker and Rosa Peckham Danielson by Amanda C. Burdan

Chapter 6 Republics Abroad: The Art and Politics of Margaret Fuller and May Alcott Nieriker in Nineteenth Century Europe by Ariel Clark Silver

Part III The Writer

Chapter 7 “Disciplinary Conversations”: May Alcott Nieriker’s “An Artist’s Holiday” by Marlowe Daly-Galeano

Chapter 8 An Ideal Life: May Alcott Nieriker, Tourism, and Life Abroad by Kristi Lynn Martin

Part IV The Artist

Chapter 9 “Let the World Know You Are Alive” May Alcott Nieriker and Louisa May Alcott Confront Nineteenth-Century Ideas about Women’s Genius by Lauren Hehmeyer

Chapter 10 Black Subjectivity in the Life and Art of May Alcott Nieriker by Julia K. Dabbs

Chapter 11 “The Pure Hope of Giving … Pleasure”: May Alcott, John Ruskin, and the Moral Aesthetic by John Matteson

Part V Legacies

Chapter 12 The “Precious Legacy” of May Alcott Nieriker: Her Paintings and her Child by Jan Turnquist

Conclusion No Longer Forgotten by Lauren Hehmeyer

2022 is going to be the year of May Alcott Nieriker!

Remember to get your copy through Routledge and take advantage of their 20% discount.

　

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