Few books have captured the imagination of generations of readers like Little Women, the 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott. Over the years, the book has been adapted, to the silver screen several times, including the 1994 remake starring Winona Ryder as the heroine Jo March. Now 25 years later, director Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which released on December 25, once again welcomes audiences into the warm, loving and chaotic home of the March family. But how much do you know about Alcott, who defied stereotypes and conventions to become one of the foremost women writers of her time?
Early life
Born in Pennsylvania, United States, Alcott’s family closely resembled the March sisters you come across in Little Women. The family struggled with poverty, forcing Alcott and her three sisters to work as governesses, domestic servants and teachers to earn money. Some of her employers even mistreated her.
Alcott learned about women’s rights and equality, thanks to her parents, Bronson and Abigail Alcott. They were friends with Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederick Douglass and Julia Ward Howe, who ended up creating on a young Alcott.
Her family operated an Underground Railroad, a network of people offering shelter and aid to slaves escaping from the South. Alcott helped them hide a fugitive slave for nearly a week. These experiences shaped her character and taught her to be open-minded.
Finding her voice
Alcott championed for universal suffrage. She wrote on women’s rights and went door to door in Massachusetts to encourage women to vote. When the state passed a law allowing women to vote in local elections she was the first one to get herself registered as a voter. Overcoming resistance, she, along with 19 women, cast their ballots. The Nineteenth Amendment was finally ratified in the U.S. Constitution decades after her death.
Writing became an outlet for Alcott to voice her thoughts and experiences. One of her poems was published in a women’s magazine when she was 19. This gave her confidence to write more, especially edge-of-the-seat thrillers, which were written largely by men.
Adopting the pseudonym A.M. Barnard, she penned some racy pulp fiction about spies and revenge.
Alcott started writing a story about adolescent girls at the behest of her publisher Thomas Niles. When he asked Alcott to write a “girls” story, she had her doubts of its success. After all, it was a time when women were expected only to marry and take care of the household. She was not sure how the public would respond to a talented and independent heroine like Jo March. Her scepticism proved unfounded as Little Women turned out to be a smash hit.
Drawn from her own experiences, Little Women went on to become so popular that fans flooded her with letters, demanding sequels. Despite becoming a bestselling author, Alcott enlisted as an army nurse when the Civil War broke out. Putting on a brave face, she comforted dying soldiers and helped doctors perform amputations. She later wrote about her stressful but meaningful experience in Hospital Sketches.
Mercury poisoning
While working as a nurse, she contracted typhoid fever and was treated with a compound containing mercury. Though she recovered at the time, she continued to be chronically ill for the rest of her life due to exposure to mercury. At 51, she died of a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888. She is buried next to her childhood companions Thoreau, Emerson and Hawthorne.
Picture Credit : Google