After four years of constant reading, study, writing and pondering on one family, I think I understand now how actors prepare for their roles, and the subsequent consequences of their immersion into their characters. Taking on the Louisa persona I'm acquainted with a couple of people (Jan Turnquist and Marianne Donnelly) who, as actresses, take …
Lizzie’s favorite hymn, perhaps the one sung at her funeral
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 …
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Unpublished Letters: A long letter from Lizzie Alcott to the family from the Sewall household in Boston
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 …
Abba, Bronson and Lizzie: a slice of family dynamics – what does it tell us?
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 …
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A day at Houghton: Getting to know the inner Bronson through his own hand
Ever since last July I have dreamed of the day I could return to the Houghton Library at Harvard and Saturday was that day. I had made a connection with one of the librarians who had supplied me with scans of three of Abba’s letters (see previous post). She told me that a collection of …
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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 …
Greetings from the Beyond
You may recall the last post I wrote about Work: A Story of Experience where I reiterated the religious importance of this autobiographical novel by Louisa May Alcott. I was moved by the consolation Christie Devon received as described in chapter 19, "Little Hearts-Ease." She heard husband David's "voice" as the breeze blew near his flute. …
The million dollar question, and the priceless answer
Following up with my last post about the lecture I attended at New North Church featuring John Matteson, author of Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father, there is a question I have wanted to ask Matteson since I started reading his book almost two years ago. How is it that …
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Love this blog - Louisa May Alcatt - feminism in the form of a torti cat (the cat with the most 'tude!). Here the author shares the anniversary of Lizzie's death with a lovely tribute.
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 