A new book that includes Louisa May Alcott

I came across a new book with an interesting angle that includes several authors along with Louisa May Alcott. Iit's called American Writers at Home by J. D. McClatchy with photographcs by Erica Lennard. The Newstraitstime website summarized the book this way: A RATHER novel compilation of literary cribs, an exploration into how the physical …

“Sanitizing” historical novels

This is a little off-track, but then maybe not. I'm sure many of you heard in the news how Mark Twain's iconic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is being 'revised' by one publisher to remove all references to the 'N' word so that the novel can still be taught in schools. Here's an excerpt …

A review of Harriet Reisen’s book and DVD from one of our own

Our friend Jillian has written another beautiful post about Louisa May Alcott, this time reviewing Harriet Reisen's and book and DVD, Louisa May Alcott The Woman Behind Little Women. Here's the link: http://jillianisreading.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/book-25-louisa-may-alcott-the-woman-behind-little-women-by-harriet-reisen/#comment-1781

The Field Trip of a Lifetime! (part two)

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) …

The Field Trip of a Lifetime! (part one)

I have been anticipating my vacation between Christmas and New Year's for several months because of a very special field trip I planned - a visit to the Concord Free Public Library where I would come into contact with the actual letters and manuscripts of my favorite author, Louisa May Alcott. The weather was beautiful …

“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" …

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 …

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 …

Christmas stories by Louisa May Alcott

I need your help! Here is one area of Louisa's writing that I am not familiar with. Can you recommend to me Christmas stories that Louisa has written? Seems like a nice way to prepare for the Christmas season. 🙂

We have a tie! Two winners of the DVD Giveaway

Thank you for the great entries for the DVD Giveaway of Louisa May Alcott The Woman Behind Little Woman, directed by Nancy Porter, written by Harriet Reisen, and produced by both. While all the entries were worthy, there were two in particular that really stood out. I asked Harriet if perhaps 2 DVDs could be …