She started taking on as many jobs as she could find in order to ease the financial troubles. She started a job were she read for an elderly father and his invalid sister, this job turned sour when Louisa received almost nothing for her work. At this time, Louisa and her sister Anna took a job teaching small children and washed laundry in an "effort to help provide for the growing Alcott family" (Durbin).
The Alcotts moved to Abba's brother's house when an epidemic of cholera made it unsafe to stay at their house. Louisa published a family newspaper, The Olive Leaf. The first issue was completed on July 9, 1849. In the fall they moved back to their house. "Louisa May had no time alone and she missed it" (Warrick 42). .
Louisa's first poem was published when she was twenty years old. "Sunlight" was published in Peterson's magazine under the name Flora Fairfield. Louisa did not receive a lot of money, but this was the beginning of a successful career that would bring fame and fortune to Louisa and her family.
Three years later, in 1855, Louisa published her first book, Flower Fables. The Alcott family moved to New Hampshire, but Louisa stayed in Boston in order to continue her writing career. In 1856, Lizzie, the third daughter contracted scarlet fever. Lizzie recovered, but her illness moved the Alcotts back to Concord where Orchard House was purchased for the family. Lizzie died on March 14th. "Yet happiness was soon to follow as Anna, the oldest announced that she was to be married" (Durbin). Lizzie's death and Anna's wedding made Louisa return to Concord in 1857. .
Louisa served as a Civil War nurse in 1862. Working there, she contracted typhoid fever and for the rest of her life she suffered the poisoning effects of mercury. Working as a nurse, gave Louisa an oppurtunity to write Hospital Sketches which was published in 1863 followed by Moods in 1864. "Louisa had bounced back from her illness to become a popular author courted by prominent Boston publishers" (Ruth 86).