Share:
  Guess poet | Poets | Poets timeline | Isles | Contacts

Louisa May Alcott [1832-1888] USA
Ranked #205 in the top 380 poets
Votes 79%: 236 up, 63 down

Abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life.

Passionate, fiery novels and sensational stories.

Wholesome stories for children.

Her protagonists for these tales are willful and relentless in their pursuit of their own aims, which often include revenge on those who have humiliated or thwarted them.

Alcott was part of a group of female authors during the Gilded Age, who addressed women’s issues in a modern and candid manner.

Louisa May Alcott was the second of four daughters, born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and raised in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts. Her father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was a noted New England Transcendentalist philosopher and educator who worked only sporadically throughout Louisa May`s life. Her mother, Abigail May Alcott, was descended from the witch-burning Judge Samuel Sewall and the noted abolitionist Colonel Joseph May. Although severely impoverished, Alcott`s childhood was apparently happy. Taught by her father, Alcott was deeply influenced by his transcendentalist thought and experimental educational philosophies. Ralph Waldo Emerson`s personal library of classics and philosophy was available for use to the young Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau taught her botany. Margaret Fuller, James Russell Lowell, and Julia Ward were only a few of Alcott`s intellectually influential neighbors and friends. Women`s rights and educational reform--important social reform issues of nineteenth-century America--were two of Alcott`s pet causes that often appear as themes in her novels.

Bronson Alcott founded several schools, but all of them failed, forcing Abigail and her daughters to undertake the financial support of the family. Later, Alcott often remarked that her entire career was inspired by her desire to compensate for her family`s early discomfort. Alcott taught school, took in sewing, and worked briefly as a domestic servant. At age sixteen she began writing, convinced that she could eventually earn enough money to alleviate the family`s poverty. In 1851, her first poem was published in Peterson`s Magazine under the pseudonym Flora Fairfield, bringing Alcott little money but a great deal of confidence. It was during the ensuing years that Alcott published, as A. M. Barnard, a number of sensational serial stories, which were both popular and lucrative.

Alcott is best known for her sentimental yet realistic depictions of nineteenth-century domestic life. Her Little Women series attracted young and old readers alike and remains popular today. Alcott`s continuing popular appeal is generally attributed to her believable characterizations and simple, charming writing style, reflected in her adage: "Never use a long word when a short one will do as well." The twentieth century has seen increased attention given to Alcott`s canon, with literary critics noting in particular her prevalent feminist and psychosexual themes. Alcott scholar Madeleine B. Stern noted that "today ...  is viewed as an experimenting, complex writer, and her work has become fertile ground for the exploration both of literary historians and psychohistorians." 

In 1862, Alcott went to Washington, D.C. to serve as a nurse to soldiers wounded in the American Civil War. It was a shortlived experience, however, for she contracted typhoid within a month, from which she nearly died. Her good health, undermined by the long illness and by mercury poisoning from her medication, was never fully recovered. Alcott later recounted her experiences as a nurse in her popular Hospital Sketches (1863) which was originally published in the periodical Commonwealth. Her first novel, Moods (1864), pronounced immoral by critics, sold well nonetheless, and its success encouraged Alcott to continue writing. In 1865, Alcott traveled through Europe as a companion to a wealthy invalid and wrote for periodicals. While abroad, she was offered the editorship of Merry`s Museum, an American journal featuring juvenile literature. She accepted the position and became the journal`s chief contributor.

The turning point of Alcott`s career came with the publication of Little Women ; or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (1868-69). An autobiographical account of nineteenth-century family life, the novel traces the development of Alcott, depicted as Jo March, and her three sisters. The work was an immediate success and established Alcott as a major author. She published four sequels to Little Women entitled Good Wives (volume two of Little Women), Little Men : Life at Plumfield with Jo`s Boys (1871), Aunt Jo`s Scrap Bag (1872-82), and Jo`s Boys and How They Turned Out (1886). Alcott was regarded as a celebrity and was easily able to support her family with her earnings.

Alcott`s literary career can be divided into three periods. The first phase, spanning the 1840s to the late 1860s, is characterized by the lurid, sensational short stories that were published anonymously and pseudonymously in various New England periodicals. Critics generally agree that the characters in these early efforts are well drawn and colorful and that the plots are intricate and tightly woven. Most of these tales feature a mysterious, vengeful woman bent on manipulation and destruction. Alcott also included ghosts, opium eaters, and mercenaries in these serials. These melodramatic stories were extremely popular and provided Alcott with a steady income as she worked on lengthier pieces.

The publication of Moods inaugurated Alcott`s most profitable and popular period. The Little Women books, which were the most successful series of their time, illustrate the struggles between adolescence and maturity. Little Women depicts the March family with a strong sense of realism and represents New England manners and customs with documentary accuracy. Critics have noted that its organization, in which each chapter comprises a well-rounded episode with a moral commentary, succeeds as a study of adolescent psychology. In particular, commentators praise Alcott`s insightful characterization, which they regard as the essential reason for the book`s enduring popularity.

From 1875 onward, as her health deteriorated, Alcott primarily produced popular juvenile literature. Most of her later works, particularly Work: A Story of Experience (1873) and Rose in Bloom (1876), depict heroines who have acquired inner strength through personal hardship and achieved personal satisfaction through careers and without marriage. In general, these works provoked mixed reviews. Most critics applaud the feminist tone reflected in these later pieces, but consider their characters and plots to be weak.

CAREER: 

Author of novels, short stories, and poems. In her youth, held a variety of jobs, including teacher, seamstress, and domestic servant; nurse at Union Hospital, Georgetown, District of Columbia, 1861-63; editor of Merry`s Museum (children`s magazine), 1867. Active in reform movements, including temperance, education, and women`s suffrage.

Henry James called Alcott the "novelist of children ... the Thackeray, the Trollope, of the nursery and the schoolroom ...," and other contemporaries remarked that her spirited, wholesome stories were destined to become American classics. The twentieth century, however, witnessed a change in the critical assessment of Alcott`s works. Although still popular with an adolescent audience, Alcott`s Little Women has been criticized for its blatant moralizing. In 1920, Katharine Fullerton Gerould carried the criticism further, calling the March girls "underbred" and "unworldly." Gerould found the novel dated and sentimental and attacked the work for its "inexcusable amount of love-making." She insisted that Alcott wrote as one who had never loved. Both Little Women and Little Men have been faulted by some early-twentieth-century scholars for poor structure and organization. Specifically, critics charged that the works resemble collections of single sketches and lack the unity of integrated novels. More recent critics, however, value this method of construction and maintain that it mirrors the adolescent point of view. The last two decades have seen a renewed interest in Alcott`s melodramatic early work. The noted Alcott critic Madeleine Stern has reprinted two collections of these colorful stories and introduced them to a new audience.

Alcott remains an enduring figure in American literature. Although some regard her portrayals of nineteenth-century domestic life as dated, she is remembered for her sympathetic and realistic depictions of the maturing adolescent. Her most popular work, Little Women, was instrumental in changing the focus of juvenile literature to include sensitive, not merely formulaic, portrayals of young adults.

Children, Feminism, Slavery, Transcendentalism

YearsCountryPoetInteraction
1803-1882
USA
Ralph Waldo Emerson
→ influenced Louisa May Alcott
1816-1855
ENG
Charlotte Bronte
→ influenced Louisa May Alcott
1817-1862
USA
Henry David Thoreau
→ influenced Louisa May Alcott


WorkLangRating
Fairy Song
eng
21
My Kingdom
eng
7
A Song From The Suds
eng
4
From The Short Story Shadow-Children
eng
2
Our Little Ghost
eng
2
A Little Bird I Am
eng
1
Lullaby
eng
1
Rosy, My Dear
eng
1
The Children’s Song
eng
1
The Rock And The Bubble
eng
1
To The First Born
eng
1
A Lament For S. B. Pat Paw
eng
0
A Little Grey Curl
eng
0
A. B. A.
eng
0
And If Your Nancy Frowns, My Lad
eng
0
Beds To The Front Of Them
eng
0
Bide A Wee
eng
0
Brighter Shone The Golden Shadows
eng
0
Chevalita
eng
0
Chingery Wangery Chan
eng
0
Clover-Blossom
eng
0
Dear Grif
eng
0
Don`t Drive Me Away
eng
0
Flowers, Dear Flowers, Farewell!
eng
0
For Myself Alone, I Would Not Be
eng
0
Fragments
eng
0
Fragments from "The Mysterious Key And What It Opened"
eng
0
Fragments from "Under The Lilacs".
eng
0
French Song
fre
0
From Our Happy Home
eng
0
From The Short Story A Christmas Dream, And How It Came True
eng
0
From The Short Story What The Swallows Did
eng
0
Gingerbread
eng
0
Give Me Freshening Breeze, My Boys
eng
0
He Prayeth Best Who Loveth Best
eng
0
He That Is Down Need Fear No Fall
eng
0
Healfast, Healfast, Ye Hero Wounds
eng
0
Hello! Hello!
eng
0
Here Is The Bracelet
eng
0
Here`s A Nut
eng
0
Hither, Hither
eng
0
I Slept, And Dreamed That Life Was Beauty
eng
0
I Wish I Had A Quiet Tomb
eng
0
I Write About The Butterfly
eng
0
In Myself
eng
0
In The Garret
eng
0
Lily-Bell
eng
0
Lily-Bell and Thistledown Song I
eng
0
Lily-Bell and Thistledown Song II
eng
0
Listening To Celestial Lays
eng
0
Little Drops Of Water
eng
0
Little Nell
eng
0
Little Paul
eng
0
Mary`s Dream
eng
0
Morning Song Of The Bees
eng
0
Mountain--Laurel
eng
0
My Beth
eng
0
My Doves
eng
0
My Frost-King - Song I
eng
0
My Frost-King - Song II
eng
0
Nearer To Thee
eng
0
Not A Sparrow Falleth But Its God Doth Know
eng
0
Now Hark, Little May
eng
0
O Lion, Grand
eng
0
Oh My Heart Is Sad And Weary
eng
0
Oh, Have You E`Er Heard Of Kate Kearney
eng
0
Oh, Peggy Was A Jolly Lass
eng
0
Oh, Timballoo! How Happy We Are
eng
0
Quee, Quee!
eng
0
Rock A Bye, Babies
eng
0
Song Of The Queer Green Frog
eng
0
Splash, Dash!
eng
0
Summer Days Are Over
eng
0
Sweet! Sweet!
eng
0
Sweet, Sweet Days Are Passing
eng
0
Sweetest Of Maidens, Oh, How Can I Tell
eng
0
Tell The Dear Old Body
eng
0
The Blessed Day
eng
0
The Downward Road
eng
0
The Flower`s Lesson
eng
0
The Jungfrau To Beth
eng
0
The Lay Of A Golden Goose
eng
0
The Mother Moon
eng
0
The Rose Family - Song II
eng
0
The Rose Family - Song I
eng
0
They Saw Again The Crocus Bloom
eng
0
Thoreau`s Flute
eng
0
To J.M.B.
eng
0
To My Lady
eng
0
To One Who Teaches Me
eng
0
To Papa
eng
0
Transfiguration
eng
0
Welcome, Maids Of Honor
eng
0
Welcome, Mighty Chief, Once More
eng
0
When It Comes Night
eng
0
Work, Neighbor, Work!
eng
0
`Y` Are The Maiden Posies
eng
0

The script ran 0.005 seconds.