name: Louisa May Alcott
birth_date: 1832-11-29 00:00:00
death_date: 1888-03-06 00:00:00
genres: Mystery & Thrillers, Historical Fiction, Literature & Fiction
influences: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann , Henry David Thoreau, Charles Dickens, Amos Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson
avg_rating: 4.13
ratings_count: 2737407
about: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents,  Abigail May Alcott and  Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including  Margaret Fuller,  Ralph Waldo Emerson,  Nathaniel Hawthorne,  Henry David Thoreau, and  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents,  Abigail May Alcott and  Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including  Margaret Fuller,  Ralph Waldo Emerson,  Nathaniel Hawthorne,  Henry David Thoreau, and  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used pen names such as  A.M. Barnard, under which she wrote lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge.Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters,  Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and  Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still popular today among both children and adults. It has been adapted for stage plays, films, and television many times.Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in reform movements such as temperance and women's suffrage. She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father's death. ...more