Talk:Louisa May Alcott

message: The Boston link could do with updating to point to the appropriate Boston article, but I'm not sure which it is. --John 23:29, 11 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Boston link

message: Alcott wrote through the rest of her life, finally succumbing to the aftereffects of mercury poisoning contracted during her Civil War service
This could benefit from some explanation -- what was she doing during the war to contract mercury poisoning? Something to do with the treatment of syphilis perhaps? Flapdragon 7 July 2005 16:23 (UTC)
:Alcott actually contracted Typhoid fever while serving as a nurse in the civil war. She had continuing ill health for the rest of her life. Jgood898 17:00, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: This needs a citation.  The article is sadly lacking in detail - and some of it may not be at all accurate.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Levalley (talk • contribs) 05:31, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  mercury poisoning 

message: The article says: 'and were later referred to as "dangerous for little minds" in Alcott's own novel Little Women'
I have found no such a reference in the book (searching in the electronic text by "dangerous" or "minds").May be the sentence comes from another book?--Bradomín 12:58, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This topic is the centerpiece of chapter 34.  I replaced the misquote. Jtdunlop (talk) 17:56, 18 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dangerous for little minds? 

message: This page needs to be cleaned up-- I don't have time now, but I'll check later if need be. Diimmortales 22:18, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You're a lot like me - 2 or more years will go by before you find the time.  I don't know what your time constraints are, but someone should assign some graduate student somewhere to rewrite this - surely there are still people studying literature who need a go at practicing their craft in writing an encyclopedia article?  If not, Wikipedia is doomed.  You and I can't edit everything ourselves, Diimortales.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Levalley (talk • contribs) 05:32, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clean up! 

message: I've cleaned up the bibliography - put it in chronological order, bracketed the dates, separated those she published under another name - I double checked everything on the web and yes before I'd realised it, I'd changed some of the dates. As far as I can find from my research, for some books there is no definitive date as it seems to skip between years depending on which reference source you use. So by all means change them back but I'm not sure what the point is. I also removed the direct links to the text of the books as these are covered in the external links section - where most of the books can be found online.
I've also added a general clean up tag to highlight the page to other editors Madmedea 20:05, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bibliography and dates 

message: There is so much vandalism on this page. Can it be protected so that only registered editors can edit it? — scribblingwoman 15:57, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I just requested semi-protection. Maybe we'll have a break from the silliness! — scribblingwoman 19:37, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Should this page be protected? 

message: I know that L.M.A. Volunteered in the civil war, but this article states nothing about what she did! (I was looking for that for an assignment.) Could someone please find out and pop in a section, possibly titled "War Times" or similar.
Much Appreciated,
Vikedal 15:41, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Civil War Volunteer work 

message: Louisa May Alcott was (and is) a major American novelist and deserves better than this article. Thanks are certainly due to the people who did some cleanup on the facutal side, but a far more comprehensive biography and critical assessment of her work are needed. Grammar, syntax, and style need a complete overhaul. Alcott was a consummate writer whose command of the language puts this article to shame. No film version has ever done justice to Alcott's work; let's see if we can do better in print. 
Litlady 22:42, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Really needs work 

message: :Image:Louisa-may-alcott-200x292.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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BetacommandBot 18:32, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Louisa-may-alcott-200x292.jpg

message: :Image:Imageekdo.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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If there is  other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page.  Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
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thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Imageekdo.jpg

message: :Image:Joji.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is  other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page.  Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
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thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Joji.jpg

message: Why does it say that New England is one of her nationalities? I don't recall New England ever being a nation.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.78.10.47 (talk) 20:20, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nationality: New England...? 

message: was she ever married — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.130.193.254 (talk) 19:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: No. She had at least one serious sutor, but she dedicated her life to the support of her aging father. She very possibly might have married if she'd lived after his death.  Saxophobia (talk) 13:04, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok, I need to source this, but there was an interview of hers in which she answers why she was never married- she says she has never fallen in love with any men, but has had fallen in love with a great many girls. So, I think that just about says it./  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Clodya (talk • contribs) 05:28, 12 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  RE: << I think that just about says it. >> Mmmm-hmmmm. Deal with it, world.Codenamemary (talk) 17:31, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Nope, you don't understand the period, or what expressions of that type meant. Reading through her letters should help explain, and why she never married the man who was her great love. Now if you want to talk about people like Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, who knows? 12.201.7.201 (talk) 23:04, 16 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Married?

message: The Wikipedia article on lupus says Alcott had the disease - it should be mentioned here.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.97.18.101 (talk) 20:28, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Then the wikipedia article on lupus might need correcting.  Alcott was never diagnosed with lupus during her lifetime.  Doctors today speculate that she might have had the disease, but short of exhuming her body in order to do tests that would confirm that diagnosis, all they can do is make an educated guess based on her symptoms.  So if a mention of lupus is included in this article, it should state it's a speculative diagnosis and not a confirmed one. LoneStarWriter82 (talk) 20:31, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: If it's wrong or unconfirmed it shouldn't be in either article.  There is however no one who will notice and change it, is my bet.  I hope to be proved wrong.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Levalley (talk • contribs) 05:37, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: There's an article in a medical journal arguing that Alcott's health symptoms aren't consistent with acute mercury poisoning, and that lupus is the most likely suspect. True, doctor's will never know for sure, but I'd trust modern medicine's analysis over 19th century speculation. More recent biographies of Alcott have adopted lupus as her likely cause of death. I've updated the article to reflect this.--Bkwillwm (talk) 23:40, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Lupus

message: At least a few quotes from critics -- there is not much hint of the nature of her works or appeal here.Geneven (talk) 22:39, 15 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Critical discussion still needed

message: How in the merry hell does someone dead for a century and a quarter have an "official website?"  "Official" according to whom?  louisamayalcott.org might serve in the external links section, but not otherwise.   RGTraynor  07:34, 31 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alright, I'll bite ... 

message: *The selected letters of Louisa May Alcott By Louisa May Alcott, Daniel Shealy  
*Louisa May Alcott: the contemporary reviews By Beverly Lyon Clark
*Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals  By Ednah Cheney
*Louisa May Alcott By Susan Cheever
*Alternative Alcott By Louisa May Alcott, Elaine Showalter
*Louisa May Alcott: a biography : with an introduction to the new edition By Madeleine B. Stern
*The Limits of Sympathy: Louisa May Alcott and the Sentimental Novel Glenn Hendler Published by: Oxford University Press
*Louisa May Alcott: Success and the sorrow of self‐denial Eugenia Kaledin
*The Louisa May Alcott encyclopedia By Gregory Eiselein, Anne K. Phillips 
*American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller ... By Susan Cheever
*May Alcott: a modern biography By Martha Saxton
Katierenee88 (talk) 21:40, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Be sure that you do not use primary sources, such as letters and diaries when writing this article. Wadewitz (talk) 18:56, 7 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  List of sources I plan on using to improve this article 

message: I.	Intro
A.	In the introductory paragraph before it talks about the work Louisa May Alcott is known for, I want to put some information. I would also like to add a few other things towards the end.
1.	Where she grew up.
2.	If she went on to do anything else
3.	When and where she passed away.
II.	“Childhood and Early Work” section
A.	I would edit things, like her father’s birthday she is born on, and maybe even the quote from him to a friend about his daughter’s birth. It’s a nice touch, but seems out of place. Even so, the quote should come after the location of her birth.
B.	I would edit and change around things to put them more eloquently, maybe putting paragraph changes in.
C.	There is also some copyediting to be done.
D.	I would add more about her and her father’s relationship, which seemed to be close, but not healthy.
E.	I would condense the places they moved into one paragraph, not multiple
F.	I would add information about her sisters and how they ended up, seeing as they were integral to her most famous story.
G.	I would move the short paragraph “as an adult” to the next section because it doesn’t fit.
III.	“Literary Success and Later Life” section
A.	I would talk a bit more about how hard/not hard it was for her to be published.
B.	Where it talks of her advocacy of women’s suffrage, this is where I would move the paragraph from the previous section about her abolitionism and feminism.
IV.	I am debating on adding a new section called “Legacy”
A.	Reasons being:
1.	Her books are very famous and studied in schools and beloved by many.
2.	I want to see how they have impacted us today slightly, for I have found articles on such things.
B.	I would also discuss here how her work was received then and now.
V.	I am also debating on adding a section called “Adaptions”
A.	Little Women had been made into 3 movies over the years (1933, 1949, and 1994) along with multiple TV series (one called “Good Wives)
B.	Jo’s Boys has also been a TV series.
The sources I will officially be using (as of now) are:
*Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever
*Alternative Alcott By Louisa May Alcott by Elaine Showalter
*Louisa May Alcott: The Contemporary Reviews by Beverly Lyon Clark
*Louisa May Alcott: Success and the sorrow of self‐denial by Eugenia Kaledin
*The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia by Gregory Eiselein, Anne K. Phillips
If any other sources occur to me, I will add them to this list. Katierenee88
:This is an excellent list of changes! I like your idea of an "Adaptations" section - many readers will come to the article looking for that information. I look forward to reading your improvements! Wadewitz (talk) 18:06, 27 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Feedback I agree that you're on the right track here and I think it is definitely wise to sort out purely biographical data from other parts of this article--that is, it's a good idea to have some chronological description of her life (where she was born, schools she attended, when and how she died) and then also have a separate discussion of her legacy and themes in her work. I would like to initially caution you that sections about adaptations are completely fine (and a good idea!), but you want to be careful about creating a long list of every single adaptation of her work, as there are likely to be many. There are guidelines about trivial information and simply put, it makes for a better article to focus on biographical content and literary themes than long lists of adaptations made after the fact. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 03:46, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

text: I agree with User:Dmbfan85 that paragraph breaks would improve the visual of the article and the readability of it. I was looking for more in the lead though. I'm not exactly sure what I would add, but I felt like I wanted more. The second list of resources looks like a good start. I definetly feel like there needs to be more sections or at least a better breakdown of the sections already in place. Crazykaystar (talk) 21:52, 9 April 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: These are good suggestions! Nice work so far! Wadewitz (talk) 13:58, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

text: By the way, I notice that an anonymous editor recently removed this information from the article without any explanation.  I do not feel strongly either way about it.  If someone feels that the information really should be in the article, feel free to re-insert it, giving an explanation on this page as to why you think the info is useful (and referencing the talk page in your edit summary).  Then, if anyone minds, they can discuss it here.  -- Ssilvers (talk) 23:23, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Outline of possible edits to this page for my class assignment. 

message: You have a really solid start to your page.  There is a lot of depth in this article and about Alcotts life.  At first glance at the article I think that the two sections there are could be made into their own.  I like your idea about the more eloquent look that paragraph breaks would give the article.  There is a lot of good information so I think you should be hesitant at what you delete and decide to keep for use.  Great start and should be a great article Dmbfan85 (talk) 20:45, 9 April 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with User:Dmbfan85 that paragraph breaks would improve the visual of the article and the readability of it. I was looking for more in the lead though. I'm not exactly sure what I would add, but I felt like I wanted more. The second list of resources looks like a good start. I definetly feel like there needs to be more sections or at least a better breakdown of the sections already in place. Crazykaystar (talk) 21:52, 9 April 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: These are good suggestions! Nice work so far! Wadewitz (talk) 13:58, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Peer Review

message: Hi.  I took a look at the article, made some copy edits and fixed some of the reference formatting.  I indicated some places that need a reference.  I also moved all of the 1850s and 1860s information together chronologically and eliminated some repetition.  Finally, I left a few hidden comments for you in the text.  To see them, hit the edit tab, and you will see them in CAPS.  After you address the hidden comments, just delete them.  Here are a few random thoughts:
*Punctuation always goes *before* the <ref> tag.
*In discussing the content of novels and other works, we usually use present tense.  For example: The novel *is* set in New England.  However, in discussing the history of the work, we use past tense: The novel *was* well-received.
*You don’t need to describe someone as "noted", because everyone who is blue-linked should be a famous person.  If you want to explain in what way they are noted, you can give the specifics: "She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for her novel X".
*The WP:LEAD section should be an overview of the article, containing a brief summary of the highlights.  The first sentence or two of the Lead usually state what the person is most famous for.  You don't need to repeat, in the Lead, most of the details that are given below, but rather select the most important facts.  I took a crack at it, but as the article expands, the Lead will need to be adjusted.  I usually recommend that people worry about the Lead later, towards the end of their editing process, after they have expanded the article. 
In general, the writing is good, and it looks like you are really picking up Wikipedia.  Make sure that every reference or cite includes all of the following information, to the extent that it is available: author name (last name first), title of the article, the name of the publication, the name of the publisher, the date of publication (or just the year if it's a book), the url or page number, and the access date if it is an online source.  See WP:CITE.  Feel free to ask me on my talk page if you have questions about any of this.  Happy editing!  -- Ssilvers (talk) 02:22, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: By the way, I notice that an anonymous editor recently removed this information from the article without any explanation.  I do not feel strongly either way about it.  If someone feels that the information really should be in the article, feel free to re-insert it, giving an explanation on this page as to why you think the info is useful (and referencing the talk page in your edit summary).  Then, if anyone minds, they can discuss it here.  -- Ssilvers (talk) 23:23, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Comments by [[User:Ssilvers]]

message: Alcott is in :Category:19th-century American novelists.  There is no reason to put her in any parents of that category when she is in that caegory.John Pack Lambert (talk) 16:49, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Categorization 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: - why move the article?  --John (User:Jwy/talk) 15:04, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why the move? 

message: At the end of the introduction, I added "citation needed" for the cause of her death. The American Transcendentalism Web, which doesn't let me paste its URL here, states that she died from the long-term effects of mercury poisoning. Of course, she could have died from a stroke brought about by mercury poisoning. I don't know what she died from. Perhaps someone with a reliable biography can edit this and cite a source. I also changed "passed" to "died." We say "passed" in order to be gentle to the bereaved. On Wikipedia, I think that we should be straightforward and not use euphemisms. Maurice Magnus (talk) 02:13, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: 'stroke' has a citation in the body of the article - and in most articles the lead need not have citations as it is a summary of the content.  That doesn't mean a discussion of the validity of the citation might not be in order - but not as an objection of the lead (which might be changed after the article changes with any clarifications from this discussion).  I'm completely with you on the euphemism aspect and left what you had in that respect. --John (User:Jwy/talk) 06:14, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alcott's death 

message: The link is in the Selected Works tab under "in popular culture", it is to the 2005 musical adaptation, which does have a wikipedia page at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Women_(musical) the link is broken and I do not know how to fix it. 2603:9009:BF0:A750:5569:8877:7611:DECC (talk) 05:47, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Broken link, and I do not know how to fix it.