Louisa May Alcott Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Louisa May Alcott

For most of the twentieth century Louisa May Alcott's literary reputation rested largely on her masterpiece, Little Women (1868, 1869). Yet, late in the twentieth century, Alcott--whose first biographer, Ednah Dow Cheney, hailed her as "The Children's Friend"--began to attract an adult audience as well as juvenile readers. Beginning in 1975, republication of Alcott's anonymously and pseudonymously published sensation stories has spurred interest in her long out-of-print adult novels. These rediscoveries have contributed to a more complete portrait of the artist, revealing a writer who understood well the conventions of various nineteenth-century genres, adeptly shaping her artistic vision to reach a variety of audiences and markets. In her best work Alcott resisted sentimentality while presenting complex characters, often maintaining control of several plot threads. She also used vernacular speech and intricate detail to depict realistically New England life in the nineteenth century. Alcott was known to sign her letters, "Yours for reform of all kinds," and this phrase was truly the signature of her literary efforts as well.

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