We went to visit Louisa May Alcott’s home. Because I wrote in my diary that I wanted to be a writer when I was eight and I didn’t read Little Women until I was ten, I know my career decision wasn’t determined by Joe March, but she definitely reconfirmed my goals.
It’s been decades since I first read Little Women, but I still have a tender spot in my heart for the March girls. (And I’m still a little sad that Joe didn’t marry Laurie.)
Louisa was an amazing person. For many years, she was the breadwinner in her family. She paid for her younger sister to study art in France. And she did this through her writing in an era when many women had to write under a male pen name. (Of course, she did use a pen name when she first started.)
I wonder if we were to ask her, would she say Little Women is her best work? It’s absolutely her most well-known and most beloved. But I wonder if it’s her favorite.
She is someone I would like to meet. But going to her home was as close as I could get. Interesting note, her home has been open to the public since the early 1900’s and 80 percent of the furnishings belonged to the Alcott family.
Thanks for sharing that, Kristy!
xx
Lizzi
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More thoughts. We’re told that Louisa wasn’t interested in marriage because she enjoyed “paddling her own canoe.” But I wonder about her sexual orientation. When the girls were young and put on plays, Louisa always chose the male roles (Rodrigo). It’s possible she wasn’t interested in marriage because she wasn’t sexually interested in men (she was a lesbian) or she just wasn’t sexually interested, period (asexual). It’s also possible she wasn’t interested in the confines of the traditional confines of her era of the male dominated society. It’s interesting that when her younger sister May died. May asked that her baby LouLou be sent to Louisa and Louisa raised LouLou until Louisa’s death nine years later. Which made me think Louisa was interested in motherhood. More questions I would like to ask…
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I haven’t read her books, but I love historical houses and I would love to go there.
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Kristy, so jealous. Little Women is still one of my favorite books. I had a set of books where the story went to halfway through the book and ended. You flipped the book over and another story was read from the back to the middle. I read Little Women/Little Men so much the binding fell off. My daughter has those books now.
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I loved those books, and Jo was always my favourite character. I’ve read all her others, too.
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I’ve read Little Women and loved it, but it’s been years. Maybe I’ll read it again. Thanks for sharing the photos!
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