Knowra Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, poet, and abolitionist whose fiction includes the enduring novel Little Women . She also wrote sensational stories under the pen name A. M. Barnard.
Little Women : Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel follows the four March sisters as they grow up during the American Civil War. Its success made Alcott a household name and drew on family life in Concord.
Amos Bronson Alcott : An American educator and philosopher associated with Transcendentalism and experimental schools. Her father’s educational ideals and financial instability formed part of her upbringing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson : An American essayist, poet, and philosopher who became a leading figure in Transcendentalism. Emerson was a family friend and a major intellectual presence in Concord.
Abolitionism in the United States : The movement to end slavery in the United States, pursued through political, religious, and direct-action campaigns. The Alcott family supported abolition, and the cause appears in Alcott’s moral world.
A. M. Barnard : The pseudonym Louisa May Alcott used for several sensational stories and novellas. Writing under this name let Alcott pursue commercially successful fiction distinct from her family novels.
Good Wives : The 1869 novel continues the March sisters’ lives after the events of Little Women . Alcott published this continuation after readers demanded more of the March family.
Abigail May Alcott : An American social worker and abolitionist who was Louisa May Alcott’s mother. Her mother’s activism and care for the family helped shape Alcott’s outlook.
Henry David Thoreau : An American writer and naturalist known for Walden and his essay on civil disobedience. Thoreau taught Alcott and belonged to the family’s Concord circle.
American Civil War : The United States’ civil war from 1861 to 1865, fought between the Union and the Confederacy. Alcott served briefly as a nurse and wrote about wartime hospital conditions.
Sensation fiction : A nineteenth-century genre of popular fiction built around secrets, crime, identity, and dramatic revelations. Alcott’s Barnard stories use the genre’s plots and heightened emotions.
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