Kathleen Burke

Born November 29, 1832, Louisa May Alcott was anything but normal compared to her soceity's standards. As the second oldest of Bronson and Abigial May Alcott, this biography follows Louisa from her birth to her death at age 56. Louisa wasn't an ordinary girl growing up as she liked to climb fences and do other tomboy things. She had a flare for writing even at the early age of 7 and spent hours with her father who was a teacher. Unfortunately, he could not hold down a job so much of Louisa's earnings from her writing were spent on her family instead of herself. Louisia refused to conform to the restrictions society placed on women and by using her pen, she became an inspiration to women everywhere. Her life was torn between the desire to take care of her family and her need for indepedence. Her experiences as a young woman led her to write several stories including Little Women, it's setting being her home named Hillside. In 1865, her younger sister Lizzie contracted Scarlet Fever and slowly died over the course of a year. In her book Little Women, Louisa brings her sister back to life as Beth March. In 1862, Louisa went to work as a Civil War nurse, but was brought home only 6 weeks later due to an illness she caught from the rampant diseases in the horrible conditions of the make-shift hospitals. Through her experiences there, she wrote Hospital Sketches. Louisa was given a drug to help her symptoms, but it contained mercury and would devistate her health for the remainder of her life. At the request of her editor, Louisia started working on a "girl's book" and for 2 1/2 months scarcely left her room until Little Women was completed. The book, of course, was an international success and readers begged for a sequel. Finally, Louisa was able to financially care for her aging family. In December 1879, Louisa's older sister May passed away leaving her newborn daughter in the care of Louisa who had moved to France. Her life was consumed with her new child and she rarely had time to write. Her greatest accomplishment in the last few years of her life was Jo's Boys. In 1885, Louisa rented a Boston home for the entire family, but fell dangerously ill because of the Mercury poisoning earlier in her life. As her health failed, so did her aging father's. He passed away on March 4th, and 2 days later Louisa breathed her last breath after complaining of a terrible headache.

I really enjoyed reading the biography. I read Little Women several years ago, but didn't know much about the author until now. She seems to have been a truly exceptional woman who cared for her family more than herself. She had several hard times throughout the course of her life, but she managed to deal with them by writing amazing stories that affected how women around the world felt and thought. I liked that this book was part of a set honoring American Women of Achievement and it gave several other women one could research as well as alternate readings to learn more about Alcott's life and acheivements.

In the classroom, I would recommend this book for a unit on researching authors and exploring what each author read or experiences in a lifetime that impacted his/her own writings. I would also use this book as a supplement to the Womens' Movement and women who impacted that era. I think having a unit on women authors of that time might be interesting. We could choose books to read aloud during class by female authors and others for the students to read as an assignment and they could research a particular author to understand how her writings reflected her own life.… (mais)