# The Biographical Dictionary of America/Alcott, Louisa May

​ALCOTT, Louisa May, author, was born at Germantown, Pa., Nov. 28, 1832, daughter of Amos Bronson and Abby (May) Alcott. Her father removed to Boston when she was but two years of age and personally conducted her education, assisted by his friend, Henry D. Thoreau. This education, with a short attendance at a young ladies' school, did not possess the practical quality that could be put to ready use in earning a livelihood. When necessity compelled her to support herself, she was obliged to resort to elementary teaching and sewing, and even to house service, and has given some hints of her struggles in a book entitled "Work." The statement that she worked thus to support herself does not bring all the nobility of this fine woman into view. Her efforts were for her family as well as for herself. Every dollar that she could spare from the bare necessities of life went into her home, to assist those she loved. She began to write stories for weekly journals when she was about twenty years of age, and received a mere pittance compared to that given to authors of established reputation for no better literary work. Sixteen years she lived in this way with just enough success now and then to keep her from becoming altogether discouraged, and then the civil war broke out. She volunteered as a nurse, and was stationed at Georgetown, D. C. Her first book was inspired by her army experience. It was called "Hospital Sketches," and yielded her the sum of two hundred dollars. She began to write articles for the magazines, and her book had given her a name that gained acceptance for some of her articles, but most of them were returned and, she says, "Consigned to an empty flour barrel." She continued writing short stories for small sums until 1867, when her publishers suggested that she should write a story for girls, and she wrote ​"Little "Women." The work occupied her three months, and she offered to sell the manuscript for one thousand dollars. Her publishers, however, induced her to accept a royalty, and she received many thousands of dollars from the sale of this one book. Eighty-seven thousand copies were sold in three years, and the advanced sale of "Little Men," which she wrote soon after, was fifty thousand copies. "Little Women" established her reputation, and editors of magazines began to solicit contributions instead of declining them. She said she invariably supplied their requests by thrusting her hand into the flour barrel, and sending to the editor the article which he had previously returned "with thanks." Her books were so popular with the young that she could not write them fast enough to supply the demand and it is estimated that she received from them a total of over one hundred thousand dollars. After the publication of her "Life, Letters, and Journals," edited by Ednah D. Cheney, the respect which Miss Alcott had commanded as an author was deepened by the respect felt for her as a woman. This book revealed a personality that was greater than her work; it showed a life deeply and simply religious, void of cant and capable of unselfish living. Her publications are: "Flower Fables or Fairy Tales" (1855); "Hospital Sketches" (1869); "An Old - Fashioned Girl" (1869); "Little Men" (1871); "Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag," series (1871-'82); "Work: A story of Experience" (1873); "Eight Cousins" (1874); "Rose in Bloom" (1876); "Silver Pitchers" (1876); "Under the Lilacs" (1878); "Jack and Jill" (1880); "Moods" (1864, revised edition 1881); "Proverb Stories" (1882); "Spinning - Wheel Stories" (1884); and "Lulu's Library" (1885). She died on the day her father was buried, March 6, 1888 of Boston Mass.