Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-19
FAMOUS WOMEN OF HISTORY.
Copyright Abbott
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, THE 10Y"
OF"LlTTLE WOMEN" 1832-1888.
Copyright. 1912. by Willis J. Abbot.

1t to some purpose writing at this time
ten or twelve stories month. most of
which We're published in the Boston Even
ing Gazette. When the editor found they
We're written by woman. he sought 10
cut down her pay, but she defied him ana
Won her point
So for some years she went on writing
short stories for continually increasing
prices. though up TO 1857 her highest
figure was So But in 1859 the At
lantic, the goal of all ambitious New
England writer's. paid her 500 and the
next year, which she labeled in her
journal "A Year of Good Luck, her
prices scared to So and 500, and her
literary earnings for the year Were $500.
After getting a NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. fee
unexpectedly she wrote in her journal:
II went to bed a happy millionaire to
dream of flannel pett'coats for my blessed
mother. per for father. new dress for
May and sleds for my boys.
Becomes Hospital Nurse.
Then came the storm of civil war. and
Louisa went into the hospitals at Wash
ington as an army nurse. 81 like the
stir in the air." she writes, land long
for battle like warhorse when he smells
powder" Her experiences she welded
into a book, Hospital Sketches" which
was eagerly bought by public hungry
for everything about the war. 1t brought
her only 500 but gave her reputation
and a public. Publishers wrote for manu-
script. and in response she sent out the
manuscript of a book Moods she had
written four years before and laid away.
Genius burned so fiercely,' she says,
speaking of the composition of this work.
that for four weeks l wrote all day and
planned all night. being quite possessed
by my work. The book was a success
and wdened her public. The money it
brought justified her taking a vacation.
and she went abroad for a year as COM
panion to a literary lady.
On her return fortune smiled. She had
become a regular contributor to the At
lantic. and was made editor of Merry's
Magazine at 500 year. But, above all.
the great opportunity knocked at her
door in the request of Roberts Brothers
for book for girls. Her response was
Little Women" which was instantan-
eously successful. The first golden egg
of the ugly duckling.'' she called it. for
out of it she made her fortune The story
was yelled autobiography; the characters
herself was "Jo." We really lived most
of it," she sad. land if it succeeds that
Will he the reason of it.
After this victory she went abroad
again. No invalid to care for, this time,
but her artist sister, May and the
in France, Switzerland and Italy. En-
voyage she received a pleasing state
ment from her publisher. giving her
credit for $6.212. but it did not lure her
to idleness. She put the story of the trip
into a chatty book, Shawl Straps,
which, like all she wrote, was successful.
Woman of Letters.
Henceforward the life of Louisa May
Alcott was that of a Woodworking and
successful woman of letters. With pass
ing time her responsibilities were lessen
ed. Her talented sister May, married
abroad. Her mother. at the age of sew
enty-seven. passed away, having for
years led the quiet restful life that Lou
lisa had coveted and earned for her. Her
fathers greatest ambition she gratitied
by setting up his school of philosophy
at Concord. where, in the open air, like
the peripatetic philosophers of Athens.
he preached metaphysics. He has his
dream at last. and is in glory with plenty
of talk to swim in she wrote.
In 1SSS her gentle. incapable father
fell i'll and died on the 9th of March.
Louisa visited him, caught a cold and
between that and her grief passed away
two days later. The Rev. c. A. BartOl,
lifelong friend Of the family said. ten
derby. as he stood at her open grave:
THE two We're wont to be together
God saw they could not well live apart.