born Nov. 29, 1832, Germantown, Pa., U.S.
died March 6, 1888, Boston, Mass.
U.S. author.
Daughter of the reformer Bronson Alcott , she grew up in Transcendentalist circles in Boston and Concord, Mass. She began writing to help support her mother and sisters. An ardent abolitionist, she volunteered as a nurse during the American Civil War, where she contracted the typhoid that damaged her health the rest of her life; her letters, published as Hospital Sketches (1863), first brought her fame. With the huge success of the autobiographical Little Women (1868–69), she finally escaped debt. An Old-Fashioned Girl (1870), Little Men (1871), and Jo's Boys (1886) also drew on her experiences as an educator.
Louisa May Alcott, portrait by George Healy; in the Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association ...
Courtesy of Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association