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.
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 …
Continue reading "Further thoughts on May Alcott Nieriker, a thoroughly modern woman"
My friend Charline Bourdin from the French Louisa May Alcott blog sent me these amazing pictures of May and Ernest Nieriker’s final home in Meudon, a suburb “but fifteen minutes from Parish by rail” as May recalls (pg. 265, May Alcott A Memoir by Caroline Ticknor). Charline lives in Meudon. May wrote many letters home …
Continue reading "See May Alcott Nieriker’s home in Meudon, France"
I'm on vacation this week and no vacation is complete without another tour of Orchard House, this time with a friend who has never been there before. I must say, I am always impressed at how knowledgeable the guides are at Orchard House. I've been there numerous times and always learn something new! Today I …
Continue reading "Why no book displaying May Alcott Nieriker’s paintings?"
In Chapter 30 of Little Women, "Consequences," Amy for the first time became a fleshed out character for me and I liked her very much. Having May Alcott A Memoir so fresh on my mind, I could see for the first time what May Alcott was really like. No memoir could describe her quite the …
The first three chapters of Little Women, Part Two (aka Good Wives) certainly didn't disappoint! I loved how the first chapter (Chapter 24, Gossip) brought me up to date on all the major characters - it was like hanging around the water cooler at work finding out what happened on my favorite TV show last …
I had been reading Little Women in bits and pieces over the summer but now I am fully immersing myself in it. Although I read some of it for school many years ago, I never finished it nor appreciated it. I actually decided to start it again when I began reading Kelly O'Connor McNees' book, …
I have finally finished Caroline Ticknor's memoir of May (I told you I was a slow reader!) and although it is pretty romanticized, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Being able to blog about it as I read made it far more enjoyable. I will reiterate that May must have been a delight to know and that …
I am getting close to the end of Caroline Ticknor's memoir on May and am beginning to dread the end. I think one of the things so captivated me about May's story was her tragic end. It just seemed so sudden, so random. She was so robust and healthy; her life was pretty much perfect …
I particularly appreciated a paragraph I read in today in May Alcott A Memoir by Caroline Ticknor where she summarized May's true contribution to the art world. Here's what she said: (page 225-226) "These slender links that bind May Alcott to the little group [in Grez, a small French village that proved to be a …
Continue reading "May Alcott Nieriker’s True Contribution to Art"
I loved this section that I read in Carolyn Ticknor's May Alcott A Memoir this morning. It details how May, while visiting the small village of Grez in France ( the latest mecca for artists), ran into a 14 year old fan of Little Women. Having read before how Louisa May Alcott was the first …
