To continue with my account of the field trip of a lifetime, there were many more treasures that I found at the Concord Free Public Library: A May Alcott Nieriker Exhibition Regular readers of this blog know of my esteem for May Alcott Nieriker. I discovered (first to my dismay and then to my delight) …
“Love and Self-Love,” another early success story for Louisa May Alcott
As I continue to slowly go through Susan Cheever's Louisa May Alcott A Personal Biography and read yet more background, I came upon a story of Louisa's that related to her incident at the Mill Dam where she nearly threw herself into the water in despair, to end her life. That story, "Love and Self-Love" …
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“Pauline’s Passion and Punishment”
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" …
Stories by Louisa May Alcott in St. Nicholas Magazine
I went searching for Christmas stories penned by Louisa and my search led me to Mary Mapes Dodge's St. Nicholas Magazine, Volume XXX. This link will send you to Google books where you can read the entire volume online or download it as a PDF (777 pages worth!). Google Books is just amazing! Mary Mapes …
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A must read
Our friend Jillian wrote an incredible post on her blog, A Room of One's Own about Fruitlands and its cast of characters and she called it "Fruity Fruitlands - an Alcott Family Utopia". I can't add any words to this, it's that good. Check it out.
Black and white line drawings in the 1880 version of Little Women
In response to a reader's question about line drawings in an older version of Little Women, Harriet Reisen suggested that the drawings of Frank Thayer Merrill were perhaps the ones she was thinking of . I found 3 online (2 suggested by Harriet) and each came from an interesting article so I'm posting the links …
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A (fictional) Alcott Family Christmas
Christmas in my office is a lot of fun (I work for an independent Real Estate firm, Rutledge Properties, doing their marketing). We are right in downtown Wellesley, Massachusetts with a lovely storefront, all decorated with a Christmas village of gingerbread houses made by children of the brokers, plus a real antique train set that …
Louisa May Alcott’s first novel, “The Inheritance”
Susan Cheever in her biography, Louisa May Alcott A Personal Biography briefly mentioned Louisa's first novel, The Inheritance, written before she was twenty. Based upon the "gothic novel" formula of the day (poor orphan girl works on an English country estate for a fabulously wealthy family only to find out she is the true heir), …
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Solving the mystery of the Norman Rockwell illustrations re: Little Women
One of our readers submitted the following intriguing comment: "Katharine Anthony wrote a biographical series on Louisa in the Woman’s Home Companion of February 1938. It was titled THE MOST BELOVED AMERICAN WRITER and illustrated by Norman Rockwell. The Jo in the attic painting is one of at least several that appeared. There is another …
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“How I Went Out to Service” – Louisa May Alcott’s humiliation
I am so glad I went on that buying spree a few months ago for books by and about Louisa because now as I plough through Susan Cheever's book, I actually have at my fingertips the vast majority of sources and stories she mentions. Chapter 4 talks in part about Louisa's foray into being a …
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Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 