Summer Conversational Series taking place this week

The Summer Conversational Series is taking place all this week at Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House. The theme is "Heaven in the Mind:" The Spirit of Place in Transcendental Concord. I will be going to the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions. I believe registration is still open--here is information on topics and who is presenting (scroll down a bit to …

Rose in Bloom: Endings and beginnings

I am glad that I somehow got the idea from another blog that Mac and Rose did not get together. It pained me to see how Mac wooed her and she would not give in. When he shared his Thoreau essays with her and found them well received, it pained me again. So you can …

Louisa Links of the Week (formerly known as Fun and Fascinating Links)

Lots of great links this week! Through the month of May, the Concord Public Library is celebrating 160 years of Flower Fables, Louisa May Alcott's first book. They will have displays (including the first edition of the book), children's activities and a visit with "Louisa" herself in the form of Jan Turnquist, executive director of …

An exciting first! The announcement of a novel about May Alcott by Jeannine Atkins

This is big news - the first of its kind - a novel about May Alcott! And from one of our readers, Jeannine Atkins, author of several books including her most recent, Views from a Window Seat and Becoming Little Women (see previous post). Congratulations, Jeannine, we can hardly wait!

May Alcott’s “Gay Paree”

Charline Bourdin of the Louisa May Alcott En France blog just sent me the most charming pictures of summertime Paris and Meudon where May Alcott Nieriker lived in the 1870s. Seeing these pictures gave me such a rush and I could see why May was so inspired. I traveled to this area as a teenager …

“I Will Remember You:” a video and musical tribute to Louisa May Alcott and her sister Lizzie

I created this video in tribute to these two special ladies in our lives. In a previous post I had mentioned how Louisa and Lizzie had changed my life; thus I put together this song and video in tribute. Enjoy and spread it around! Are you passionate about Louisa May Alcott too? Subscribe to our …

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 …

The Alcotts in my family – my sister is May!

I embody a bit of Louisa in my writing and Lizzie in my music; my sister definitely embodies May Alcott Nieriker in her art and her love of the rugged outdoors (as you may know May enjoyed rowing and horseback riding). My sis, Christine Hoyle Houde, just launched her artist website and I am proud to …

Louisa May Alcott The Women Who Wrote Little Women by Julian Hawthorne

Check out this fascinating anecdote-rich article by an Alcott contemporary, Julian Hawthorne (son of Nathanial Hawthorne) Written in the 1920s he gives a unique perspective on the popularity of Little Women during the free-spirited flapper era. He also spills some gossip about he and Abby May. 🙂 Enjoy! http://clickamericana.com/eras/1920s/louisa-may-alcott-the-woman-who-wrote-little-women-1922 Click to Tweet & Share: Louisa May …

Further thoughts on May Alcott Nieriker, a thoroughly modern woman

While researching May and Ernest's home in Meudon, France (see previous post), I had a chance to read May's thoughts in her letters home from Caroline Ticknor's book, May Alcott A Memoir. May was a happy newlywed reflecting on her perfect life with gratitude. In one sense she was blissfully naive but her charm was precisely …