Alcott Revisited

I grew up in England, as most of you know. One of my childhood glimpses into American life was through books by Louisa May Alcott, like Little Women, Good Wives and Jo’s Boys. Not long ago, my husband Linton gave me a copy of The Woman Behind Little Women, and my colleague Judith Ellen mentioned Eden’s Outcasts. The first, written by local author Harriet Riesen, gives a stark, honest portrait of the author, whose life was no children’s book. The second tells the story behind Louisa May Alcott and her father Bronson. So, during the past few months, I have enjoyed rediscovering Alcott. I read The Woman Behind Little Women over the winter break and became enthralled as my understanding of what it meant to be Alcott evolved.

(A little background about myself: I am a 19th century literature buff, both American and European. I have read the Transcendentalists. I have a sense of Bronson Alcott and his obsessions. I have visited many local sites, the Fruitlands, Herman Melville’s house, and King’s Chapel. My favorite book of a couple of years ago was The Peabody Sisters, written by Megan Marshall, the mother of a recent CSW graduate, Josephine Sedgwick ’09.)

Now, back to Alcott. She really did not like writing children’s stories! She actually wrote some rather lurid vignettes that involved opium and hashish use, sexual exploits and other risky behaviors. She grew up impoverished, not the genteel kind that we read of with the March family. No, an abject poverty that left her hungry and cold at night. She saved her family by becoming a writing superstar, through the successes of Little Women and countless other stories. In 21st century terms, she ended up being a millionaire—and a celebrity.

There is nothing like rediscovering something you have always enjoyed and seeing it through new eyes. Naturally, my newfound passion with Alcott led to a visit to Orchard House, in Concord, where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women. It was amazing to see the very small desk she used to write all these successful pieces—no laptop for her, simply an inkwell and a lot of paper—with frequent cramps in her fingers!

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Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.