March 24, 2008
Honoring Hen: Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott, known best as the author of Little Women, was a popular female
author of the late 1800s. Long before her literary career, Alcott was an army nurse in the Civil War where she broke the ban on admitting single women. After the war and a trip to Europe, Alcott returned to America to find her family once again in debt. She resolved to change that with the publication of Little Women. This book has never been out of print and has been published in some 50 different languages. Some say that Alcott felt she sacrificed her artistic and personal wishes for her family’s monetary needs with Little Women. Whether or not that is true, she continued to try to make change in the world by petitioning for women’s suffrage, funded a home for orphaned boys, and visited the State Reformatory to tell stories to the prisoners.
So not only did she give us great literature like Little Women, Jo’s Boys, Eight Cousins, and many others, but she contributed to making her world a little better.
Save The Lobsters! 