Biography of Louisa May Alcott

“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age ill bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success” (Alcott). The wise words of an All-American author who lived a boundless life. From journal and diary entries to novels, short stories, and poems Louisa Alcott had great success and published many books in her lifetime.

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. Louisa wasn’t like every other girl in her time in fact she was nothing her family and nineteenth century New England required her to be as a young girl. She stated “no boy could be my friend until I had beaten him in a race and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences, and be a tomboy.” In all she was her own person or as she was taught to see it willful, selfish, and proud (Bronson Alcott). She was the second of four girls born to Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May. Her father was a transcendentalist, philosopher, and educational experimenter, and her mom stayed home and raised her and her sisters on practical Christianity.

Bronson Alcott was the main educator of his four daughters Anna, Louisa, Elizabeth, and Abby. But in 1832 after the birth of Louisa, Bronson packed up the family and moved to Boston where he established a Temple School. It was an experimental school where he could introduce his novel and visionary methods. Bronson’s beliefs were that each individual should be involved in their education and enjoy the learning process. Therefore, students spent more time outside of the classroom than usual. Because of his methods the school di...

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...father since her mother’s passing, and on March 4, 1888 her father, Bronson Alcott passed away.

Louisa May Alcott died on March 6, 1888 in Boston, Massachusetts which was also the day of her father’s funeral. She had been suffering from the slow effects of mercury poisoning which she got during her Civil War service by the medicine she was given for typhoid pneumonia. Alcott was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. The whole 56 years Louisa Alcott lived she never led the life of the common woman. She was her own person, did what she wanted to do, and wrote so well that she is greatly remembered today. Her biggest achievement was the publishing of “Little Women” and the book has never gone out of print. Her vast majority of short stories, poems, novels, and many more were and still are very popular. Louisa led a free life and succeeded greatly.