ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY (1832-1888), American author, was born in Germantown, now part of Philadelphia (Pa.), Nov. 29, 1832. Like her mother, she felt deeply the family trials and privations caused by the unpracticality of her father, Amos Bronson Alcott. In later life she defined a philosopher as "a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down." When she was still a young girl her journal reflected her determination to earn money and make her family comfortable. Fortunately the Alcotts' wandering life had allowed her plenty of time out of doors, so that a strong body was built up for the active brain, and, as she herself put it, nature gave her a vital sense of God's presence "never to change through forty years of life's vicissi tudes, but to grow stronger for the sharp discipline of poverty and pain, sorrow and success." She started her bread-earning career early as a dolls' dressmaker, and in a few years was putting her hand to anything that would bring in money to purchase necessaries and pay off debts for her family—teaching, sewing, even, for a short period, domestic service. "Pot-boilers" at this period brought in five or ten dollars apiece ; of a wild, sensa tional type, they worked off her steam and perhaps gave some facility in writing. Their nature may be judged from "The Baron's Gloves" and "A Whisper in the Dark," which have been included in her collected works. In 186o 5o dollars for an Atlantic story seemed like wealth and fame indeed. Her first book was Flower Fables (1854), tales originally written for R. W. Emer son's little daughter Ellen; but she attained widespread celebrity only after the publication of her Hospital Sketches, serially in the Commonwealth and in book form in 1863 (republished with additions, 1869). These were a revision of her letters to her family during her period as nurse in the Union hospital at Georgetown, D.C. Her six weeks there . in 1862-63 resulted not only in fame but also unfortunately in shattered health, and this, combined with her incessant overwork, finally caused her death, in Boston, March 6, 1888, two days after her father's death.
Of her life the best record is her own. As the "Jo" of Little Women (1868), the most popular girls' book ever written in America, she will always live in the hearts of her readers. Al though this is probably the most autobiographical of her books, other of her experiences in Boston, Concord and abroad are reflected in Jo's Boys (1886) ; An Old-Fashioned Girl (18 70) ; Shawl Straps 0872), one of the series Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag (6 vol., 1871-79) ; Moods (1864), a much revised novel, and L. Alcott's favourite; Work (18 73) ; and many of her shorter pieces. Little Men (1871) describes her nephews, children of her older sister, Anna; Lulu's Library (3 vol., 1885-89) is named after the little niece whom the artist sister, May, when dying bequeathed to her; and Jack and Jill (188o) makes use of the Concord young people.
Miss Alcott's most enduring place is due to the cheeriness and wholesomeness of her pictures of boy and girl life. Her novels Moods, Work and A Modern Mephistopheles (18 7 7) in the "No Name" series are experimental in technique; and even her juvenile books show the inequalities attendant upon her haste in production and her ill health. In early life poverty was responsible for her steady output ; in later life nervous restless ness and perhaps excessive generosity caused her to feel the necessity of supplying all demands upon her. After only one article on Ralph Waldo Emerson, long her idol and her family's truest friend, do we find not the dollar sign in her journal but "a labour of love." In any however, her lavishness in giving not only of her money but also of her personal service to relatives, friends and strangers alike and her ardour in the causes of abolition and woman's suffrage must be considered. Through several generations she has held her place among America's most popular writers for children.
By far the best biography is Ednah D. Cheney's Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals (Boston, 1889), which contains Miss Alcott's early records and also her later annotations. Copious use is made of it by Belle Moses in Louisa May Alcott, Dreamer and Worker (1909) , and by the writers of numerous shorter sketches.