General Notes

Alcott, Louisa May (1832-88), American writer, whose books for children are characterized by their intimate depiction of family life and loyalties. The daughter of the educator and philosopher Bronson Alcott, she was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She was raised in Boston and was tutored by the American writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. While serving as a nurse during the American Civil War, Alcott wrote letters to her family that were later published as Hospital Sketches (1863). Her most famous worksùLittle Women (1868-69), an autobiographical novel of her childhood, and its sequels, Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886)ùare considered classics. In order to support her own often poverty-stricken family, Alcott also wrote a number of thrillers. These well-crafted, suspenseful yarns were published pseudonymously in various magazines.