My commute to work is one hour or more each way so I have to do something to entertain myself. I tend to have what I call “brain dumps” while driving and when I do, I whip out my phone and turn on the Dragon app. Then I dictate what I’m thinking. A good portion …
Origin of the P.C. and the P.O. from Little Women — it started earlier than you think.
Research has a way of taking you places you never thought to go. I recently rereaded a 1937 biography of Louisa May Alcott by Katherine Anthony (of which I will write about in a future post) and started to wonder why so much came out about the Alcott family that year. An era of the …
Jo’s evolution as a creative, and as a woman
What did Jo March mean when she said she wanted to create something "spendid?" Perhaps gaining recognition for her writing. Maybe even being hailed as a great writer. Writing a book of artistic merit and universality that would stand the test of time. Yet we find in Little Women that Jo's goals would evolve from that solitary …
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The March Family Letters, Episodes 4 and 5: It’s back to work and, the Witch’s Curse gone wrong
It's back to work for Jo and Meg after the Christmas holidays. I can hear the shriek of "Josepehineeeeeeee!" now: Amy's solution may not be the one Jo desires, hee hee hee! Are you passionate about Louisa May Alcott too? Subscribe to the email list and never miss a post! Facebook Louisa May Alcott is …
Check out this new and modern take on Little Women – The March Family Letters on Pemberly Digital on YouTube
Little Women updated--again! On December 25 a new series debuted on the Pemberly Digital Channel on YouTube called The March Family Letters featuring short video letters by a modern version of the March Sisters. Like the Lifetime movie "The March Sisters At Christmas" (see previous post), this series takes Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy into the …
What would May’s life as a wife, mother and artist have been like had she lived? Jo’s Boys gives us a hint.
Jo’s Boys is tinged with sadness. And wistfulness. Louisa worked on Jo’s Boys for seven years beginning in 1879, the year her youngest sister May died six weeks after bearing her daughter Lulu. Abba, known as “Marmee” had died in 1877. Laurie and Amy’s idyllic life Chapter Two, “Parnassus” has us visiting the palatial home …
Abigail May Alcott’s love was her strength
Following up on my last post on Abigail Alcott, I finished transcribing yet another letter from her to Bronson dated January 4, 1858. Looking for a reply Lizzie is clearly getting worse, her days winding down until her death on March 14. Abba was her primary caregiver, a crushing responsibility in and of itself. But …
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Answers to the Little Women quiz; information needed on a late 19th-century British version of Little Women
Results of True/False Quiz I see some of you tried the True/False quiz of what was real and what was made up in Little Women. No one got 100% but you were very close! Here are the answers: Hannah the servant FALSE - The Alcotts could not afford any servants in those days The Christmas …
Continuing to trace the steps of Little Women: Madeleine B. Stern’s brilliant analysis, part three: Can you tell what’s real and what is made up?
Little Women has been called autobiographical because Louisa May Alcott used so many episodes from her own childhood and that of her family to create the story. But where does fact end and fiction begin? Or does it even work like that? Stern says, “Fact was embedded in fiction, and a domestic novel begun in …
Letter from an anguished mother: Abba writes of her sojourn with Lizzie to the North Shore
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 