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The life and works of Louisa May Alcott


            The Life and Works of Louisa May Alcott.
             One beautiful November day, in 1832 the author of the classic novel, Little Women entered this world. On the 29th day of November, Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She is famous for many novels, poems and short stories. Alcott accomplished a lot in her short lived life. She was the second of four daughters who were born to Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May Alcott. Her father was a prominent transcendentalist and pioneering educational innovator who "wished to transcend, or rise above, society's problems by creating a community where honesty, sincerity, and unselfishness and all things of the spirit would rule" (Warrick 31). Alcott's mother took care of her husband and four children.
             When Louisa was 2 years old, in 1834, the Alcotts "moved to Boston, Massachusetts where her father pursued his teaching career by setting up the Temple School" (Durbin). Six years later the family moved to Concord where Ralph Waldo Emerson, a close friend to the family, helped them to set up residence. They named their house the Hosmer Cottage. Louisa liked the atmosphere in Concord and divided her time between taking nature walks with Henry David Thoreau and acting out plays with her sisters which she had written.
             In 1843, the Alcott family took part in an experimental communal village called Fruitlands. Louisa's father, Bronson, wished to use this place to further his beliefs in transcendentalism and bring his daughters a greater understanding of nature. Here, they "ate dinner without dinner plates, because plates had to be washed and put away" (Ruth 29) which Bronson believed was a waste of energy. Not seeing any success, the family returned to Concord in 1845. They lived in Hillside.
             Bronson was unable to get a steady job, so four years later the Alcotts moved back to Boston. "Louisa began to feel more and more responsible for her family's financial needs" (Durbin).


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