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Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father

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She wrote LITTLE WOMEN and became the household breadwinner. He held philosophic conversations after several failed attempts at running his own private school. Both nearly starved at Fruitlands, their utopian experiment. But if that's all you know about Louisa and Bronson Alcott, you are sadly ill-informed. You need to read EDEN'S OUTCASTS; and the sooner, the better.

In spite of its title -- which gives misleading higher billing to Louisa -- this book is indeed a dual biography that documents a complex father-daughter and writer-writer relationship. Chronologically, the treatment has to first study Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888), from his beginnings on a farm in Wolcott, Connecticut, and a rural education that, unlike other Transcendentalist men, did not include a college degree. Working first as a peddler, he later landed what seemed to be the perfect job for such a thoughtful, self-taught young man: school teacher. Soon enough he was married to Abba May (1800-1877) and had a household of little women -- daughters Anna Bronson (1831-1893), Louisa May (1832-1888), Elizabeth Peabody/Sewell (1835-1858), and Abigail May (1840-1879). Matteson follows Bronson's myriad attempts to find suitable jobs as well as every subsequent relocation the family made, covering a good portion of the Northeast and New England. He turns to Louisa as she moves to the family forefront, and also when she serves time as a nurse in a Union Army hospital. Because each member of the family kept a journal, much of their daily lives and thoughts are available to us -- at least, those events and feelings that they took the time to document. Diaries were not kept private in those days.

Center stage here are Bronson -- the fumbling father who wanted very much to be a teacher and philosopher but did not find sustained success in either venture at first -- and "Louy" -- the imaginative tomboy who seemed to defy convention at every turn and gradually created stories that magazine editors were willing to buy, in spite of the fact that a woman wrote them. This is real life, a seesaw featuring a father and a daughter who had very different personalities but sometimes exhibited startling similarities. The ironies are almost staggering: they were both born on November 29th. They both found literary success at the same time, and they both struggled with new-found celebrity. They died within several days of one another. And both were inexplicably influenced by the text of John Bunyan's classic, "The Pilgrim's Progress." Like father, like daughter, in many respects.

Author Matteson obviously read every scrap of writing penned by Louisa and by Bronson; and because of his diligence, we readers have front row seats to their everyday lives. He also takes the time to provide a succinct and sound critique for each of their published or otherwise finished works. His approach in presenting and interpreting the facts is as neutral as possible, while being moderately sympathetic to the foibles of both of his subjects. Readers need not follow his lead: it's difficult at times not to feel terribly sorry for Louisa, Bronson, and the whole Alcott family. The true miracle is that they met and survived their challenges as best they could. And they found enough fame for their work to still be known and appreciated.

The text is wonderfully revealing and readable. Matteson's concluding paragraph is a stand-alone masterpiece. Every biographer should take the time to reflect on his/her subject in such a fashion.

Destined to become THE biography of the Alcotts, EDEN'S OUTCASTS is worthy of sharing a shelf with Megan Marshall's THE PEABODY SISTERS. It's a must-read for fans of the Transcendentalists as well as for the ever-growing number of Louisa May Alcott aficionados.

The author manages to do justice to both his subjects, Louisa May Alcott and her father. He also creates an excellent picture of the time and explains the transcendtalist movement. Besides L.M. Alcott and B. Alcott one learns a lot about Emerson, Thoreau, Elizabeth Peabody and other luminaries of the time. The book is fact driven, there are often long quotations from original material and it is very well written. A most enlightening book, bringing its subjects and their surroundings to life. I originally bought this book becasue of my interst in L.M. Alcott but by the end I found her father at least as interesting.
I read this book like a thriller, finishing it in three days.

Thank you to Jim Matteson for reading every scrap the Alcotts left behind and digesting it into this wonderful dual biography.

I was a young reader of Little Women (maybe 10 times) and the rest of the series. Later as an adult, I never quite put together the pieces the family. Now I know how the Alcotts fit in with Emerson and Thoreau, the role of Fruitlands in the life of the Alcotts and how it was the Amy came to marry Laurie.

The above paragraph could sound flip without the understanding of how Louisa's fiction was a byproduct of both her father's idealism and his inability to support his family. Louisa would be his standard bearer, but she would at all costs, support the family.

Bronson's philosophy of education was ahead of his time. While it can be debated whether his career ending publications served the cause, it is clear, it did not serve the family well. Followed by a second public humiliation in the touted but failed Fruitlands experiment, you can imagine the grief of a former idealist with a young family to feed.

How many father's careers have been rescued by their children... and in the 19th century... any by their daughters? In the case of the Alcotts, it is more than a career redeemed, it is also values and virtues.

Matteson gives a wonderfully readable dual biography. He sticks with his thesis. It's good that he resisted the temptation to delve into the other interesting personalities of the time. Just like when I first read Little Women, I didn't want this book to end.

This is an engaging work of nonfiction. Matteson delivers a well written, fact driven, story about the interwoven lives of Bronson and Louisa May Alcott. Wonderfully rendered, it's never boring. Definitely worth a read if you're interested in 19th century women, writers, or history in general.

A well writen biography of one of the 19th. Centuries least famous literary families...The Alcotts father Bronson, mother Abba and daughters Elizabeth "Lizzy", Lousia May, Anna and May...This is a book without training wheels Professor Matterson leaves it to the reader to be familuar with Transdentialism, Godwinism, American Putitainism the lives of Hawthorne, Thoreau (Brothers), Enerson, the Lake District Poets, Wordsworth, Carisle etc. he doesn't take the time to inform the reader how they fit in to the Alcotts story...The heart of the book deals with the relationships bewteen Bronson Alcott and disgruntled Puritain turn Emerson transdentalist (Americas first hippie)and his cast of daughters who were as individual and different from each other as they could be...Louisa May the number two daughter is the focus of that relationship but her three sidters play strong supporting roles...If 19th. Century American Literature is of interest to you and you have done the prerequsites this will be an enjoyable read that will advance your knowledge of a most interesting if disfunctional family that played an inportant role in both literature and philosophy.

This book taught me a lot about Transcendentalism and all the myriad connections among authors whom I might otherwise not have considered as part of a community. The narrative flows smoothly between Bronson Alcott and his more famous daughter, Louisa. Both help to illuminate the other. In the end one gets a very thorough portrait of a distinct time in New England history. I especially learned a lot about Louisa's role as a nurse in the Civil War and now intend to read her "Hospital Sketches."

I can and do recommend this book.

Transcendentalist junkies will love this book! The author, John Matteson, obviously pored over thousands of pages to cull and organize material about the rich, complex minds and lives of Bronson and Louisa May Alcott (to whom I am distantly related) in a clear, readable and thoughtful way. His insights are keen, and the wise conclusions he draws about the Alcotts are presented with a cautious delicacy, which I especially appreciate since, in so many biographies, the writer imposes burdensome and sometimes arrogant interpretations of his/her subjects onto readers.

I am in awe of Matteson's writing. As I read "Eden's Outcasts," there were a number of times when I would linger on a sentence and reread it just for the sheer pleasure of enjoying the delicious way the author puts his words together. Matteson's mastery of language is exquisite!

This book, like its subjects, has depth. Someone who is not enthusiastic about the Alcotts or who is looking for a Hollywood type of story with lots of action and soundbites probably should not read "Eden's Outcasts." As for me, I hated to come to the end of the book. My only consolation is how much I am looking forward to John Matteson's biography of Margaret Fuller.

I agree with all the other reviewers, this is an outstanding biography. It is also something of a cautionary tale of the utopian urge that occasionally effects intellectuals. Never able to support his family, Bronson Alcott persisted in searching for a heaven on earth. His actions to actually create such a place are very sad.

I'm a Louisa May Alcott fan from girlhood, when I first became aware of her signature piece, "Little Women". My older sister read it and declared that I was Amy- the youngest and most spoiled of the March sisters. Of course, I had to read the book for myself, and soon cast myself as Jo. Little Women has remained as one of my all time favorite novels, and I have reread it countless times. I also have read several of her less successful works, among them a well preserved 1902 printing of "Pansies and Water-Lilies" which I was delighted to find in a used book store a decade ago. I spent six years as a Civil War era reenactor, often at places that the Alcotts knew, such as Old Manse, Emerson's home in Concord. I feel I am fairly well qualified to comment on Eden's Outcasts.

I was greatly disappointed in the last biography I read about the Alcotts. This book, on the other hand, is everything I wished for! Eden's Outcasts was based upon primary source material- actual letters, books, and other documents from the Alcotts and their acquaintances. I imagine it must have taken years and years to research and write this copious biography, as it is well over 400 pages of text, documented with dozens of pages of footnotes. Each chapter flows smoothly into the next, and the reader is able to follow along and see how Bronson Alcott came to be the man he was, and consequently, how Louisa became the woman she was.

This story reads like a who's who of the mid to late 1800's in New England. Writers and visionaries such as Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Lydia Child were all intimately acquainted with the Alcott family. Each person emerges as naturally as can be though, as the author appears far removed from literary name dropping. This book is pure pleasure for the reader interested in transcendentalism or the Civil War era.

Matteson covers Bronson's early life as a destitute Connecticut farm boy, his travels as a peddler, his marriage to Abba, his various attempts at teaching, and his unconventional ideas about parenting and life in general. The story of Bronson and Louisa includes plenty of detail on the other Alcotts as well, so we receive a very clear impression of the family dynamics and personalities involved.

Bravo, Mr. Matteson, well done!

Reading literary biographies has long been my not so quilty pleasure. I can say with all honesty that John Matteson's "Eden's Outcasts" is one of the best that I have read. I learned that the book was a Pulitzer prize winner only after I had finished it and I was delighted to have my humble opinion so decidedly confirmed.

Matteson manages to give equal attention to the story of the more famous writer Louisa May Alcott and that of her father Bronson, a brilliant, idealistic philosopher who was a leader in the 19th century American Transcendentalist movement and a progressive educator. Although Bronson was an admired friend of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, he was also a troubled man who was woefully incapable of earning a living. The Alcott family often lived in dismal lodgings with a man who dwelled in castles in the air. Louisa was a willful original who sometimes perplexed her father but who ultimately rescued the family with the wild success of "Little Women".

The author's writing style is deft but graceful, with just the right dose of historical information and story-telling. I was a relative newcomer to the topics presented in the book but I never fell into my nasty habit of biographical page skimming. Most of all, the story of the complex relationship between father and sensitive daughter is told with heart - Matteson formally acknowledges two colleagues who taught him to write "with precision" and ..."with love". The book's concluding paragraph knocks this one out of the park.