Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
She may have written homey tales of family, but Louisa May Alcott鈥檚 own life was filled with struggle.
If Louisa May Alcott鈥檚 family were alive today, they would likely try their hands at working an organic co-op in Massachusetts, keeping company with Michael Pollan, and seeking out other progressive writers of the day. But if things turned out anything like they did in real life 鈥� when father Bronson subjected his family to life at Fruitlands, an experiment in agrarian communal life in Harvard, Mass. 鈥� the four young daughters and debt-ridden parents would suffer mightly from hunger, cold, and the effects of poor nutrition.
The author of the timeless homey tale 鈥淟ittle Women鈥� herself lived 鈥渁n unusually varied experience,鈥� in her own words. She was a child of a transcendentalist, an actress, a Civil War nurse, an invalid鈥檚 governess, an elite first-class traveler of Europe, and the celebrity writer of a multitude of family tales and racy pulp fiction. Harriet Reisen鈥檚 Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women perceptively traces each wild turn of the author鈥檚 life through diary entries, letters, and her own largely autobiographical popular fiction. (A televised version of Reisen鈥檚 book aired Dec. 28 on PBS鈥檚 鈥淎merican Masters.鈥�)
鈥淟ittle Women鈥� itself was born of the need to pay off family debts. It was the plague that, left by her father 鈥� whose dreamy utopian ambitions were only matched by his lack of financial wits 鈥� defined Alcott鈥檚 life until adulthood. Bronson Alcott prodded his daughter to turn the family鈥檚 tales into a book when a publisher was chasing after the already-popular children鈥檚 author. 鈥淚 plod away, though I don鈥檛 enjoy this sort of thing,鈥� Louisa wrote. 鈥淣ever liked girls or knew many, except my sisters, but our queer plays and experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt it.鈥�
Of course, they did. The American classic was an immediate hit that hasn鈥檛 yet lost its appeal to young readers. Alcott even paid one of her family鈥檚 final large debts with the book鈥檚 proceeds 鈥� a decade-old doctor鈥檚 bill for treatment for young Lizzie (鈥淏eth鈥� to fans) at the time of her death. 鈥淓very penny that money can pay 鈥� and now I feel as if I could die in peace,鈥� Alcott wrote.
But she had much more time to live and would always be far from peace, despite her fortune. In 1871, for example, she took in $7,654 from just one publisher鈥檚 royalties. According to Riesen, Alcott was making over $2 million a year in today鈥檚 dollars. But despite being the family breadwinner, she was also the caretaker, long nursing her ill mother and at times her father, and taking on her late sister May鈥檚 (鈥淎my鈥�) infant daughter. She became the 鈥淎lcott family writing manufacturer, nurse, maid, and bill payer,鈥� in Riesen鈥檚 words.
Though Alcott modeled the spunky 鈥淛o鈥� after herself, her life was the more interesting of the two 鈥� although with far fewer happy endings besides her eventual fortune as a fiction writer. She was chronically sick after her war-nurse stint. She never married. Her family moved 30 times by her mid-20s. Her two younger sisters died before she did. She took morphine, opium, and hashish in no small quantity. She didn鈥檛 even take pleasure in the hordes of fans that trekked to her home: Reisen describes her as a 鈥渃urmudgeon鈥� who turned away excited young girls. Sometimes she pretended to be a gardener to avoid them.
For Alcott, writing was what her aching machines of fingers could churn out to pay the bills as much as it was a creative outlet. (She admitted easily bowing to popular demand to have Jo marry in her fiction, though she would have preferred to have her as a strong and independent spinster like herself. 鈥淸S]o many enthusiastic ladies wrote to me clamorously demanding that she should marry Laurie, or somebody, that I didn鈥檛 dare refuse, and out of perversity went & made a funny match for her,鈥� Alcott wrote.) She 鈥渨as addicted to popularity, and knew better than to flout convention too much,鈥� Reisen says.
Riesen鈥檚 biography makes these astute analyses having examined each curve of the writer鈥檚 career. The book suffers only from such a microscopic examination that details and characters are confused in a way that they wouldn鈥檛 be in an Alcott story. But if Alcott鈥檚 most popular novels drew on biographical material to make a neat, family-friendly tale, a biography of the troubled and spirited woman herself can be anything but.
Taylor Barnes is an intern at the Monitor.