Discovering Little Women's Author: 9 Surprising and Delightful Facts About Louisa May Alcott

1. "Little Women" Family Chronicles

Did Louisa May Alcott write "Little Women" or was it a chronicle of her family's shenanigans cloaked in fiction? Cozy up and ponder that, literary sleuths: Alcott's "Little Women" was based on the lives and personalities of her own family, with many events and characters directly inspired by real-life happenings, such as Beth's passing, Jo's writing aspirations, and even her own stint as a Civil War nurse.
Source => nypl.org

2. Jo's Unplanned Romance

When life gives you Friedrich Bhaers, make lemonade: Louisa May Alcott originally intended for her heroine Jo March to remain a spinster, but caved to her publisher's demands and cooked up an unorthodox romance with the stereotype-defying, German professor Friedrich Bhaer.
Source => vox.com

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=> Fun Facts about Laura-Ingalls-Wilder

3. Victorian Mary Poppins

Louisa May Alcott danced through life like a multitasking octopus, juggling careers like a laundress, governess, teacher, nurse, and lady's companion, with the grace of a Victorian Mary Poppins: The real magic happened on Sundays, when she traded her sewing needle for a pen, stitching together stories that would weave her into the fabric of literary history.
Source => usatoday.com

4. Alcott's Dark Alter Ego

Move over, Dr. Jekyll – Louisa May Alcott had a literary alter ego of her own: Before penning Little Women and becoming famous for her wholesome tales, Alcott wrote scandalous stories of murder, obsession, and forbidden love under the pen name A.M. Barnard, giving us a tantalizing peek into the darker side of 19th century women's lives and shattering her image as a prim and proper children's author.
Source => crimereads.com

5. Villainous Childhood Playtimes

Who needs heroes when villains have more fun?: Louisa May Alcott, famed Little Women author, indulged in taking on the roles of all manners of ghastly ghosts, treacherous bandits, and haughty queens in childhood playtimes, paving the way for her to craft flawed yet thought-provoking characters such as the spirited Jo March in her literary masterpieces.
Source => louisamayalcott.org

6. Suffragette Louisa

If Little Women got a kick out of casting ballots, they'd probably follow in Louisa May Alcott's footsteps: Louisa and her family were avid women's suffrage supporters, and she broke barriers as the first woman to register to vote in Concord's school committee election in 1879.
Source => loc.gov

7. Gossip-worthy Family Drama

Little Women or Little Gossip Girls? Louisa May Alcott spiced up her classic novel with the scoop on her own family dramas: The influential book was heavily based on her upbringing, with her father being a controversial educator, her mother advocating for women's rights, and the characters inspired by her real-life family members, including her sisters and herself.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

8. Civil War Nurse Alcott

Much like a soldier called to duty, Louisa May Alcott exchanged her pen for a stethoscope, swapping ink and quills for syringes and band-aids: As her father served as a chaplain in the Civil War, Louisa became a nurse, wrote letters to soldiers, and even sold her stories to support her family when her father was away.
Source => digital.library.upenn.edu

9. Tomboy Louisa

Lo and behold, the lady who penned "Little Women" was quite the tomboy herself – trading petticoats for pantaloons in a plot twist worthy of her own novels! No seriously: Louisa May Alcott, despite her fondness for masculine nicknames and gender non-conformity, was indeed assigned female at birth and identified as a woman throughout her remarkable life.
Source => lgbtqnation.com