by Editing Services

Created on: December 26, 2008

Louisa May Alcott was a famous American writer who was born on November 29th, 1832 in Germantown, which lies in the state of Philadelphia. She had three sisters named: Anna, Elizabeth and May.

She is well-known for her collection of Little Women' books. These are a series of four books following the lives of the March family (Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy), and it is thought that the stories are in actual fact based on Louisa's own family.

When Louisa was a child, the Alcott family intially lived in Boston until 1858. They then moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where they lived in a house named Orchard House; a house which the family bought using Louisa's mother's inheritance, as well as funds from a family friend. Today, Orchard House is famous for being the house where Louisa May Alcott once lived. As a child Louisa May Alcott was extremely poor.

As a young child, Louisa was educated mainly by her father, but also by family friends Margaret Fuller and Ralph Emerson. When Louisa grew into a young lady, she became a strong believer in women's rights. Quite early on in her life, Louisa had already begun work as a teacher and also a dressmaker. She also took on various other jobs.

By 1855, she had begun to write, and her first book was published: Flower Fables. Louisa was 22 when the book was published. It consisted of stories which had originally been written for Ellen Emerson, Ralph Emerson's daughter. In 1856 one of Louisa's younger sisters, Elizabeth Alcott died from scarlett fever.

She soon started writing for the American magazine Atlantic Monthly in 1860. At this time Civil War had broken out in America, and Louisa began work as a nurse. It was then that she developed Typhoid Fever, a disease which she struggled with for the rest of her life.

In 1864 another novel Moods, was published. She also wrote some works under a pseudonym: A.M. Barnard. Another of her novels The Inheritance, remained unpublished until 1997, a long time after Louisa May Alcott's death.

The Little Women Collection: In 1868, the first part of the Little Women series was published: Little Women (also known as Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy). She wrote this at the age of 35. It had been commissioned by Thomas Niles, and was written at Orchard House during May to July of the same year that it was published. It is a story which is set in New England, at the time of the American Civil War. The sequels to Little Women are: Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). All four books were written at Orchard House.

In 1877, Louisa's mother Abigail passed away. The following year her sister May got married, and soon gave birth to a baby girl whom she named Louisa May (nicknamed Lulu) after Louisa May Alcott. The novel Lulu's Library was a book which Louisa wrote for her niece Lulu.

Louisa May Alcott died on March 6th in 1888, on a date which was very soon after the death of her own father. Her body lies buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetary, in Massachusetts.

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