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.
From Pink Umbrella for Alcott's Imaginary Heroes: interview with contributor Deborah Davis Schlacks - her essay, "Pilgrim's Regress" is powerful about finding the courage to speak up, and how the ability to write can send the message. She of course, cites Louisa as her inspiration.
From the LW150 blog by Kathryn Graham: This is probably one of the most memorable chapters in Little Women. I think of my fierce temper as my “Beast;” a part of my creative temperament that must be controlled yet channeled. I wonder if Louisa thought that way too?
By Kathryn V. Graham
Now it’s Jo’s turn–after individuated attention paid to Beth and Amy in chapters 6 and 7, where the former finds the Palace Beautiful and the latter suffers her Valley of Humiliation, and before Meg’s Chapter 9 trial at Vanity Fair. These four clustered titles offer strong allusions to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’sProgress, but Jo’s encounter with Apollyon is the knottiest of the references. Even a reader unversed in Bunyan would have no trouble grasping the other three concepts. But who (or what) is Apollyon, and what does this encounter mean for Jo?
Jo has experienced the devastating loss of the sole copy of her hand-written collection of fairy tales, “the loving work of several years,” a project she hoped to share with her father and see in print. Amy has burned Jo’s manuscript in a fit of pique after being excluded from an excursion to the…
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Meet another author from “Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy” – K.R. Karr, West Coast writer and academic – loved her essay on Goethe, her grandmother Oma, and the suitability of Professor Bhaer for Jo.
In this blog post series, we’ll feature contributing authors from our new anthology, Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy. Today we’ll catch up with K.R. Karr, West Coast writer and academic.
Contributor K.R. Karr on Puget Sound with the Washington State Ferry in the background. Photo credit: Kristina Berger.
What is your favorite scene from Little Women?
My favorite scene from Little Women is when Jo comes home with her hair cut, having sold it to pay for Marmee’s train ticket after Mr. March is wounded in battle. This scene really demonstrates to me Jo’s inner qualities, as well as her love for her family.
Who are some of your other “imaginary heroes” from literature?
I love this phrase “imaginary heroes” and some of mine include Emily of Deep Valley, Jane Eyre, Cassandra Mortmain of I Capture the Castle, Renee in Colette’s The Vagabond, Lucy Honeychurch…
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Now this is a new take on “Amy’s Valley of Humiliation”!
By Alicia Mischa Renfroe
I became an Alcott “scholar” at age six when I found an old copy of Louisa Alcott: Girl of Old Boston by Jean Brown Wagoner in a box of books that my grandfather had rescued from a one-room school slated for demolition. I read it so many times that my concerned mother (unaware that I had found my career) eventually hid it and substituted Little Women. Part of the Childhoods of Famous Americans series, this biography reveals how little Louisa learns to be a “good girl.” Drawing on a memorable anecdote from Alcott’s life, Wagoner describes three-year-old Louisa’s birthday party where she must forgo her own piece of cake for another child, and such moments appear throughout Little Women as well as Alcott’s other work.
One of four consecutive chapters drawing on Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, “Amy’s Valley of Humiliation” focuses on the youngest March—the…
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Look who got featured on Pink Umbrella Books for “Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy”! Thank you Pink Umbrella Books for the honor and privilege of being featured in your new book.
In this blog post series, we’ll feature contributing authors from our new anthology, Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy. Today we’ll catch up with Susan Bailey, author, Louisa May Alcott devotee, and proud New Englander!
Contributor Susan Bailey cozies up with The Annotated Little Women in Massachusetts.
What is your favorite scene from Little Women?
My favorite scene is when Beth runs over to thank Mr. Laurence, impulsively puts her arms around his neck and kisses him, and ends up sitting in his lap. I thought that took a lot of guts to do that! I am a typical Yankee (“frozen chosen” as they call us in New England) – quite reserved, especially when it comes to showing physical affection, and I know I would have been far too self-conscious to do what Beth did. She totally forgot herself in the spirit of love and gratitude towards…
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I am happy to present this interview with Clare Niederpruem, director and writer, and Kristi Shimek, writer for Little Women (a modern retelling) starring Lea Thompson. The movie premieres on September 28, 2018. SPOILER ALERT: Some of these questions may give away parts of this movie. 1. Why did you choose to make the present …
In my opinion, a truly new reflection on Beth and the loveliest I have ever read. Thank you Sandra Burr!
By Sandra Burr
As a ten-year-old, I didn’t know what to make of Beth. She never seemed solid, unlike her sisters. Meg was worldly because she was sixteen and seemed closest to my high-school babysitters and their mysterious algebra homework. Jo was lively and talkative and always up to something, and Amy was snooty and generally repulsive. Those three sisters made sense. Beth didn’t—probably because I couldn’t grasp who she was.
I’ve learned a thing or two since I was ten, and Beth, while still elusive, presents a mystery today far more fascinating than algebra! What animates her beyond gentle timidity and maternal leanings? I decided to use Chapter 6, “Beth Finds the Palace Beautiful,” to delve into this question, hoping to find something real about Beth as she finds something real in and through the Palace Beautiful next door.
This chapter focuses on Beth’s musicality, which strikes me…
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A lovely post about Jo’s first meetup with Laurie, and reminder to us all to be good neighbors.
By Sarah Wadsworth
Looking through the clear plastic dust jacket of my childhood copy of Little Women is like peering through a window: behind the transparent “pane,” Marmee plays the piano while the girls joyously sing. Inside, a bookplate signed in my neatest thirteen-year-old hand takes me from the Marches’ parlor to my own family home. I turn the page and an inscription—”December 1976 / Merry Christmas Sarah”—calls to mind the kindness of the giver to a book-loving girl growing up, like Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, in a home defined by a father’s absence as well as a mother’s presence.
In “Being Neighborly,” kindness is key. The adjective “kind” appears four times, “kindly” three times, and “kinder” once. Kindness is made manifest in acts of thoughtful generosity, each one begetting reciprocal acts in kind. Eager to make friends, Jo arrives at the Laurence house bearing three kittens from Beth…
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A great interview by Trix Wilkins of the Much Ado about Little Women blog with Merry Gordon and Marnae Kelly of Pink Umbrella Books and their newest release, “Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy.”
I had to ask: Team Laurence or Team Bhaer? Editors Merry Gordon and Marnae Kelly talk Jo March’s ending, how they’d put the March sisters to work at Pink Umbrella Books (not just work of course – they’d go on holiday too), and surprises for fans in the to-be-released anthology, Alcott’s Imaginary Heroes: The Little Women Legacy.
MERRY: I’m Team Friedrich. Unpopular opinion, perhaps, but Laurie is such a puppy.
MARNAE: I’m a big Bhaer fan because of the equality of minds in that relationship and the opportunities for growth in both characters.
MERRY: I’d take an English holiday with Jo – specifically to hit up the literary landmarks, as we are kindred spirits that way.
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Back in July at the Summer Conversational Series at Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, I had the privilege of conversing with author and Alcott scholar Anne Boyd Rioux about her new book, Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters. You can listen in as I fashioned it into a …
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 