Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) was an American novelist and social reformer, working in the causes of temperance and woman’s suffrage. She is best known for the novel series Little Women (1868, 89,) one of the best-known children’s books of all time.
Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Alcott was mainly taught by her father, the transcendentalist philosopher and educator Bronson Alcott. Alcott was sometimes tutored by such family friends as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Alcott’s early writing did not get recognition until she produced the first volume of Little Women (1868,) a joyful and appealing account of her childhood, portraying herself as Jo March and her sisters May, Elizabeth, and Anna as Amy, Beth, and Meg. The book was an immediate success, so in 1869 she produced the second volume.
Alcott’s other enduring children’s books include Little Men (1871,) Jo’s Boys (1886,) Eight Cousins (1875,) and Rose in Bloom (1876.) She also published more than 30 “dime novels” under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Louisa May Alcott
Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Happiness
Have a 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 bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.
—Louisa May Alcott
The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.
—Louisa May Alcott
My definition of a philosopher is of 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
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Philosophy
People don’t have fortunes left them in that style nowadays; men have to work and women to marry for money. It’s a dreadfully unjust world.
—Louisa May Alcott
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Dreams, Aspirations, Goals, Imagination, Vision
Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth’s sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Reform, Truth, Correction
Housekeeping ain’t no joke.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Housework
I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.
—Louisa May Alcott
Far away, there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations; I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Beauty, Aspirations, Hope
My father taught in the wise way which unfolds what lies in the child.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Learning
Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Humility
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