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.
The Alcotts were an atypical Victorian family to be sure. Along with rather unconventional philosophic and religious ideas as to how to live, the family did not subscribe to typical Victorian role models. Role reversal To begin with, Bronson’s refusal or inability to work to support his family necessitated that his wife Abba take on …
Continue reading "Those unconventional Alcotts left behind quite the mark"
On Thursday I toured Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House. I was anxious to see the artifacts pictured in The Annotated Little Women, edited by John Matteson and took a vacation day to see them as November can get swallowed up in holiday preparations. If you live anywhere near Concord and can get to this exhibit, …
I created this video in tribute to these two special ladies in our lives. In a previous post I had mentioned how Louisa and Lizzie had changed my life; thus I put together this song and video in tribute. Enjoy and spread it around! Are you passionate about Louisa May Alcott too? Subscribe to our …
To Mother I hope that soon, dear mother, You and I may be In the quiet room my fancy Has so often made for thee, - The pleasant, sunny chamber, The cushioned easy-chair, The book laid for your reading, The vase of flowers fair; The desk beside the window Where the sun shines warm and …
Continue reading "Honoring our mothers on Mother’s Day as Louisa honored her Marmee"
While researching May and Ernest's home in Meudon, France (see previous post), I had a chance to read May's thoughts in her letters home from Caroline Ticknor's book, May Alcott A Memoir. May was a happy newlywed reflecting on her perfect life with gratitude. In one sense she was blissfully naive but her charm was precisely …
Continue reading "Further thoughts on May Alcott Nieriker, a thoroughly modern woman"
In my continuing research on Elizabeth Alcott, I find that letters by her mother offer the most poignant moments. I am already obsessed with Lizzie and Abba's comments act as gasoline on an already roaring fire. I'm told that obsession with a character will produce a good story; I sure hope so! I believe in …
Continue reading "Lizzie’s favorite hymn, perhaps the one sung at her funeral"
The year is 1853, a critical year in the lives of several members of the Alcott family. Since 1848 when the family moved from their beloved Hillside home in Concord, the family had lived like gypsies, moving from place to place. Some of these places were dreary basement apartments in poorer sections of the cities, …
Continue reading "The Alcotts in Boston: Come visit 20 Pinckney Street"
Here is a long letter from Elizabeth Alcott, written just before she and Abba left for the North Shore. They are staying at the home of Tom and Mary Sewall in Boston. It was written on August 6, 1857. The letter comes from the Amos Bronson Alcott Family Letters collection, Houghton Library MS Am 1130.9 …
In 1853, Elizabeth Alcott suffered a bout of depression. She was seventeen at the time and the family was destitute, living in Boston and constantly on the move. Abba wrote the following to Bronson about the episode: "Elizabeth is in rather better spirits but it seems as if there had been some collapse of the …
Continue reading "Abba, Bronson and Lizzie: a slice of family dynamics – what does it tell us?"
Work is progressing, albeit slowly, on my book project. I am enjoying all aspects of the process from the thinking and planning while I drive (I’m one of those crazies that talks to myself all the time), to the research, to the paragraphs percolating in my head, to the final writing. I’m falling more in …
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 