Louisa May Alcott

Titles in Fiction category:

• An Old-fashioned Girl    

  "It's time to go to the station, Tom."

• Baron's Gloves; or, Amy's Romance    

  "What a long sigh! Are you tired, Amy?"

• Eight Cousins    

  The Author is quite aware of the defects of this little story, many of which were unavoidable, as it first appeared serially. But, as Uncle Alec's experiment was intended to amuse the young folks, rather than suggest educational improvements for the consideration of the elders, she trusts that ...

• Flower Fables    

  THE summer moon shone brightly down upon the sleeping earth, while far away from mortal eyes danced the Fairy folk. Fire-flies hung in bright clusters on the dewy leaves, that waved in the cool night-wind; and the flowers stood gazing, in very wonder, at the little Elves, who lay among the fer ...

• Garland for Girls, A    

  These stories were written for my own amusement during a period of enforced seclusion. The flowers which were my solace and pleasure suggested titles for the tales and gave an interest to the work.

• Jack and Jill    

  "Clear the lulla!" was the general cry on a bright December afternoon, when all the boys and girls of Harmony Village were out enjoying the first good snow of the season. Up and down three long coasts they went as fast as legs and sleds could carry them. One smooth path led into the meadow, and ...

• Jo's Boys    

  'If anyone had told me what wonderful changes were to take place here in ten years, I wouldn't have believed it,' said Mrs Jo to Mrs Meg, as they sat on the piazza at Plumfield one summer day, looking about them with faces full of pride and pleasure.

• Little Men    

  "Please, sir, is this Plumfield?" asked a ragged boy of the man who opened the great gate at which the omnibus left him.

• Little Women    

  "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

• Rose in Bloom    

  Three young men stood together on a wharf one bright October day awaiting the arrival of an ocean steamer with an impatience which found a vent in lively skirmishes with a small lad, who pervaded the premises like a will-o'-the-wisp and afforded much amusement to the other groups assembled ther ...

• Under the Lilacs    

  The elm-tree avenue was all overgrown, the great gate was never unlocked, and the old house had been shut up for several years.

Titles in Short Stories category:

• Aunt Kipp    

  "Children and fools speak the truth."

• Country Christmas, A    

  "A handful of good life is worth a bushel of learning."

• Cross on the Old Church Tower, The    

  Up the dark stairs that led to his poor home strode a gloomy-faced young man with despair in his heart and these words on his lips:--

• Death of John, The    

  Hardly was I settled again, when the inevitable bowl appeared, and its bearer delivered a message I had expected, yet dreaded to receive:--

• King of Clubs and the Queen of Hearts, The

  Five and twenty ladies, all in a row, sat on one side of the hall, looking very much as if they felt like the little old woman who fell asleep on the king's highway and awoke with abbreviated drapery, for they were all arrayed in gray tunics and Turkish continuations, profusely adorned wi ...

• Kitty's Class Day    

  "A stitch in time saves nine."

• My Red Cap    

  "He who serves well need not fear to ask his wages."

• On Picket Duty

  What air you thinkin' of, Phil?

• Psyche's Art    

  "Handsome is that handsome does."

• What the Bells Saw and Said    

  "Bells ring others to church, but go not in themselves."

About the Author

American author, known for her children' books, especially Little Women (1868). Unknown to her family and the public, Alcott begun writing 'rubbish novels', sometimes anonymously, sometimes as 'A.N. Barnard', to contribute to the family income.

Alcott was born in Germantown (now part of Philadelphia). During her childhood her family moved to Boston. She spent most of her life in the Boston-Concord area, and received almost all her early education from her father Bronson Alcott (1799-1888), who was member of the New England Transcendentalists. He was an idealistic, if impractical person, who bvelieved in the spiritual life, as contrasted wirh the material life. When a visiting English author criticized her father's teaching methods, the schoolmaster Alcott moved with his family to Concord. Among the family friends were Theodore Parker, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Alcott began to keep diary at the age of seven. Her first book, Flower Fables (1854), a collection of tales, was originally written for Emerson's daughter Ellen. After the failure of her father's utopian community Fruitlands, she took care with her mother of the welfare of the family. Her mother, who had not been so enthusiastic about the New Eden plan of her husband, took in boarder, when the family moved into Boston again.

By 1860 both her short stories and poems began to appear in the Atlantic Monthly (now The Atlantic). As an ardent abolitionist she volunteered in the American Civil War as a nurse and served in 1862-1863 at the Union Hospital in Georgetown, D.C. During this time Alcott contracted typhoid from which she never completely recovered. In 1863 Alcott published her letters in book form under the title Hospital Sketches. The work was well received and encouraged her to continue with her writing aspirations.

Alcott's first novel, Moods, was published in 1867. In the same year she became editor of a children's magazine, Merry Museum. With the publication of Little Women, which started under the pressure of financial need, Alcott gained enormous fame as a writer. Responding to her publisher's request, she draw her material from her own family and from the New England milieu where she had grown up. The novel was followed by several other popular works, among them Good Wives (1869), Old-Fashioned Girl (1870), and Little Men (1871). Alcott's last years were shadowed by the the deaths of her mother and her sister May, who left behind a little daughter. Alcott died in Boston on March 6, 1888.

Author biographies courtesy of Author's Calendar. Used with permission.