She Wrote A Cherished Novel That Became Famous For Addressing The Role of Women In The 1880s, And It’s Actually Based On Her Life Story
Louisa May Alcott is one of the most famous American authors. Best known for her cherished novel, “Little Women,” she was an important voice for women during the Gilded Age and showed people how valuable a strong female voice can be.
Did you know that “Little Women” was based on her life story?
Louisa was born in Philadelphia in 1832 but grew up in Massachusetts after her family moved to Boston two years after she was born. In 1840, her family moved into Orchard House, the famous cottage in Concord where “Little Women” takes place. Like the book’s protagonist, Jo, Louisa was one of four sisters.
Louisa’s parents were a part of the transcendentalist religious movement and highly valued education and learning.
As a child, Louisa’s parents introduced her to writers and philosophers like Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathanial Hawthorne. She quickly found a passion for writing and started writing her own stories at a young age.
When her family entered a period of financial struggle, Louisa had to stop going to school consistently and began taking on various jobs, from teaching to cleaning.
She eventually learned she could sell her stories to contribute to her family’s income. But because it was harder to get work published as a woman, Louisa began selling stories under a pseudonym.
She published her first book of short stories in 1854. Then, when the Civil War broke out, she briefly worked as a nurse at a Union hospital but became a patient there when she got typhoid fever. She wrote about this experience in her 1863 novel “Hospital Sketches.”
Louisa couldn’t help but notice the limited power women had in the world she grew up in, as not only were they unable to vote or hold down jobs, but they could hardly have anything of their own.
Mark – stock.adobe.com- pictured above is the Orchard House, built in 1650, which was the home of Louisa May Alcott
She was asked to write a story for young women and decided to write a novel based on her life growing up with her sisters. The four March sisters of “Little Women” are based on Louisa and her siblings, with Jo March representing herself.
“Little Women” is famous for addressing the role of women in the 1800s, family matters, love, personal growth, women’s rights, etc.
Once published under her name in 1868, it became a great success, and Louisa quickly became known as one of the most popular novelists of the 19th century. The first edition of the book sold out two weeks after being published.
In the 1870s, Louisa spent much of her time getting involved in the women’s suffrage movement. She became one of the founders of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union in Boston in 1877, which served to help women and children living in an industrial city.
As the women’s rights movement progressed, she became the first woman to register to vote in her hometown of Concord.
In 1879, while living in Boston, Louisa took in and looked after her niece “Lulu” after her younger sister, May, passed away. Unfortunately, Louisa suffered from declining health as she entered her 50s. She had many chronic health problems, and some scholars believe she was dealing with an autoimmune disease.
Louisa passed away in March 1888 at the age of 55. While many of us wish she could have lived longer, her legacy lives on, and her story continues to be cherished. You can still visit her childhood home in Concord and see her Boston home along the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
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