Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888):
Biographical Information
Her Homes
Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. When she was almost 2 years old, Louisa's family moved to Massachusetts, the state where she lived the bulk of her life. The family moved many times over the years, usually back and forth between Boston and Concord (Mass.). Some notable places Louisa lived were "Fruitlands" in Harvard, Massachusetts; "Hillside" in Concord; and "Orchard House," also in Concord. "Fruitlands" was the site of her father's attempt at Utopian living, which she wrote about in Transcendental Wild Oats, thirty years later in 1873. Louisa's childhood at "Hillside" (later renamed "Wayside" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, when he lived there) served as the basis for the action in her most popular novel, Little Women, which she wrote as an adult living in "Orchard House." Interestingly, these latter two houses were located next door to each other, with a walking path through the woods between. They are both still standing and open for tours in Concord.
Her Family
Louisa May Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was an important--though controversial--man in his times and in his community. He is perhaps best known for being a philosopher and an education reformer, but he was also a leader in the Transcendentalist movement as well as a teacher, school superintendent, and an author [Moore and Dapper]. He established both the Temple School, in Boston, and the Concord School of Philosophy. Although he was a loving father, he was not very responsible or practical, so Louisa's mother, Abigail May Alcott, filled the role of "head of household". Just like Jo, the protagonist in her Little Women, Louisa had three sisters--one older (Anna Bronson Alcott) and two younger (Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sewall Alcott and Abba May Alcott). And, much like Jo's sister Beth, Lizzie died at age 22 from complications of scarlet fever. But, unlike Jo, Louisa also had a little brother, who die