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.
As a writer, army nurse, single mother, caretaker and homemaker, the celebrated author of Little Women blazed a trail for women managing home and career. When people hear the name of Louisa May Alcott, they think of Little Women. A novel written for girls, this best-selling classic celebrates the home, marriage and motherhood. It also …
“Daisy and Demi were full of these whims, and lived in a world of their own, peopled with lovely or grotesque creatures, to whom they gave the queerest names, and with whom they played the queerest games. One of these nursery inventions was an invisible sprite called "The Naughty Kitty-mouse," whom the children had believed …
Continue reading "Little Men: “The Naughty Kitty-mouse:” Goodness Gracious!"
Before I begin, thank you for your part in the extraordinarily successful launch of my new blog, Be As One: A Single Flow … The stats were encouraging and that’s a massive understatement! Thank you. Involvement in my new blog dampened my passion for Louisa but only temporarily. It only takes reading a page or …
You’ve come of age and it’s time to strike out on your own. How do you feel? Excited? Fearful? Full of anticipation? Will it be a grand adventure or a dismal failure? In her mid-twenties, Louisa May Alcott was ready to strike out on her own, fueled by her obsessive desire to be a financial …
Continue reading "Work: “Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor” – what could women do?"
A while back I got a recommendation from a reader's blog, A Thing Called Joe, regarding one of Louisa's potboilers, a book so sensational that her publisher, James R. Elliot of The Flag of Our Union refused to run with it! It was meant to be serialized in the magazine like so many of her …
Continue reading "A Long Fatal Love Chase is definitely a “guilty pleasure”"
Recently the Milner Library at Illinois State University hosted a series of programs as part of the ALA's "Louisa May Alcott The Woman Behind Little Women"; they were one of many libraries around the country that received grant money from the NEH and the ALA. The series is based upon the best-selling biography of the …
I'm currently reading chapter 6 in Susan Cheever's book, Louisa May Alcott A Personal Biography which focuses on the years of 1863-65 when Louisa would serve as a nurse in the Civil War, and taste her first literary successes. Louisa had been writing her "blood and thunder" tales to earn money for "the pathetic family" …
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 