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Born to Bronson and Abby Alcott
Born in Germantown (part of Philadelphia) to transcendentalist parents, Louisa was surrounded by well known novelists and intellectualists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.
The Alcott Family -
School
Louisa begins learning by having conversations with Henry David Thoreau. She learns early on that she needs to live up to her father's strict expectations of perfectionism, which is a common theme among transcendentalists. During the early years many of these people hung out at Orchard House, the famous Alcott home. -
Poverty
Poverty forced Louisa to learn many skills. She was an occasional teacher, seamstress, governess, domestic helper, and writer. For Louisa, writing became a creative outlet and she began to take it more seriously. Flower Fables is the first book written. -
Civil War - Hospital Sketches
After the Civil War broke out Louisa served as a nurse in Georgetown at the Union Hospital. At the same time she was writing for Atlantic Monthly, and sent many letters home. Those letters were later collected and revised into what is known as Hospital Sketches. -
A.M. Barnard
Louisa used the pseudonym A.M. Barnard while writing some of her most passionate work. A Long Fatal Love Chase, and Pauline's Passion & Punishment were two of notable novels that had such themes where the protagonists were often out for revenge. -
Little Women
Alcott's greatest success came from the novel Little Women. The novel's charachters, The March Sisters, were loosely based on her own childhood in Concord Massechusets. Little Women was widely accepted by critics of all ages as an accurate representation of daily life. One of the best loved renditions of Little Women was created in 1994. 1994 movie - Little Women -
Death
During later years Louisa suffered from chronic illness. Many biographers thought she died from mercury poisoning but most accept that she passed away from a stroke in 1888, two days after her father's death. She is buried near the transcendentalists that she knew throughout her life in Sleepy Hollow Cemetary. Brief Biography
