Customer Reviews

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women (John MacRae Books)

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Louisa May Alcott has always been a favorite author of mine. I have read a few biographies(years ago with the exception of Little Women Abroad, Alcott in Her Own Time) about her life and have read all of her books. So when this new biography came up I was interested but I wondered if anything knew could be written about the author that everyone seems to forget.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. As others have said it is an easy read, not weighed down with academic writing that makes one want to fall asleep. Yet it is obvious that the author has done her research.

The book starts out with a history of Abigail and Bronson's family history, how they meet and their early marriage. This sets the stage for the childhood that Louisa and her sisters will experience. The interesting thing about this book is that it describes Bronson's life but I found out more about Mrs. Alcott than I ever knew. Everyone neglects her and always focuses on Bronson which is a crime since she was the one who worked the hardest. For instance I was unaware that she had been left for long periods of time with the children while Bronson went off trying to make money. Nor did I know that she had so many miscarriages and nearly died as a result. Another thing that was interesting to me is that Louisa seemed more like her mother yet most biographers continue to say that Louisa was like her father.

The Real Louisa May Alcott is brought out in this book. The author does not sugarcoat things, she does not try to make Louisa into some Victorian model of womanhood(if that was even possible). What the author tries to do is explain who Louisa was faults and all. Those faults do not make Louisa bad, just human, like the rest of us.

Louisa was a rash, naughty child who was spanked for not sitting down properly at the dinner table. She would often hit her older sister and when Elizabeth was born she hated her. Louisa often confused her father with her outbursts and her rage. Abigail felt a kinship with her daughter because she shared the same faults. Yet despite her flaws Louisa was determined to make something of herself. She saw how her mother toiled, how her father lacked common sense, and she wanted to help her family. Louisa longed for nice things as everyone else and she wanted to erase the family debt.

The biography trails Louisa's life, her trials and her victories. While I have read all this before the author gave me new information. I have read about the Fruitlands experience but I cannot recall anyone mentioning Abigail's distrust or Mr. Lane. I remember descriptions of what happened but not the amount of detail that Ms. Reisen provides.

The book covers every aspect of Louisa's life. Her stint as a Civil War nurse, her trip abroad, the success of Little Women and so much more.

Yet even when she gained success she still wasn't happy. Louisa hid from her admirers and didn't seem to like them much. Louisa complained that her family seemed eager to take her money and she wondered when she would enjoy it. There are also some quotes from Lulu, May's daughter, which are insightful. Louisa seems to have showered Lulu with expensive dresses and toys(things she never received).

I enjoyed this book very much and I highly recommend it. I hope that with this book and the new documentary that Louisa May Alcott will be rediscovered for the amazing talent she was. She will no longer be remembered as just a childrens author who is constantly swept under the rug so authors like Dickens and Austen can be praised.

I have long been a fan of LM Alcott and have devoured several biographies about her. While Reisen's book is very informative, the narrative style is rather dry and tedious. My one major grievance with the book is a blatant error on page 238 where the author is describing the character Jo's children in Little Men. Reisen claims thatt Jo's children were fraternal twins--Demi and Daisy. How can a professed Alcott disciple make such an egregious blunder? And what sloppy editing that no one caught the error before publication. Jo had two sons with her husband, the professor. Meg had the twins. I am also suprised that the author did not include one single photograph in this biography. As a reader, that left a tremendous void with the volume.
I would recommend Martha's Saxton's Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography as a better overview of LMA's life.

This was a timely read for me. I visited Orchard House, the Alcott family home, a few years ago, and found the place surreal. It was easy to picture the family living there. I stood next to Louisa's writing table and learned that she had to become ambidextrous because she was sorely misusing the one hand. I admired her sister, May's room where the walls were filled with her drawings. After the tour, I purchased a small print of an owl that had been painted by May Alcott. I also bought a print of Orchard House. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and the two prints are in the room that I call my library. Finally, in a box of old books, that were recently given to me, I found a book containing five thrillers that had been written by the amazing Louisa May Alcott.

Well, along came THE WOMAN BEHIND LITTLE WOMEN by Harriet Reisen, and I was ready. The book is fascinating. I sincerely applaud the author for her excellent research. Although, this book has a lot of very detailed information, it held my interest.

Louisa's father, Bronson Alcott was an intellectual who became involved with the transcendental movement. He was a teacher, and had many different schools over the years, but they usually failed as his methods seemed too unorthodox to most people. His marriage to Abigail May produced 4 daughters. The family were constantly moving and Bronson often left his wife and children for months at a time fulfilling his intellectual pursuits. Mrs. Alcott, was left alone to care for her family. During the years, she experience five miscarriages. Of course, her health suffered, and she almost died during one miscarriage. Bronson was rarely there when she needed him most.

Louisa May Alcott, was the second of the daughters and we're told that she was a difficult and stubborn child. She was often disciplined by her father because she was too willful! Her life was spent in the company of some of the most famous men in New England. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne were all friends of the family. Over the years, those friends provided financial help to the Alcott's, as Bronson could never support his own family. Louisa's family spent most of their lives living on the good will and support of family and friends. Sometimes the family would be split up living in several different places and just waiting for a time that they could be together again. In later years, Louisa's success as a writer brought their dreams to fulfillment.

Writing a short review of this book is almost impossible and my words are only tidbits from the book. I came away with so much respect for Louisa! She worked hard for her entire life and when she finally received fame and fortune, she was surprised at the people who constantly sought her out for autographs and conversation. Her health was not good and it was peace and quiet that she sought and not scores of people wanting to meet and converse with her.

This book is a must read for the details of Louisa May Alcott's life! It also provides some interesting history of the Civil War. Louisa, herself worked in a hospital in Washington, D.C. nursing wounded soldiers. In fact, she contacted typhoid pneumonia and came close to dying from the experience.

This biography of Louisa May Alcott was a well-written, enjoyable read. Harriet Reisen gave a chronological account of the Alcott's lives while relating how the national events of the time effected them and how they influenced history (through their Transcendental movement, abolition movement, etc.). She also worked in many quotes taken from letters and the personal journals kept by each member of the family.

The first 87 pages were mainly about Louisa's parents (Abby and Bronson) and their friends. If you're interested in Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, and other famous Transcendentalists, you'll probably enjoy this section more than I did. I was continually exasperated with her parents and, while I saw the value of showing the influences Louisa grew up with and how they affected her writing, I didn't like her parents and wanted to get on to focusing on Louisa.

From page 88 to 302, Harriet Reisen focused on Louisa and, to a lesser degree, her sisters. This section was lively and very fun to read though Louisa didn't have a very easy life. I liked how Harriet Reisen let us see Louisa's faults as well as her strong points and how she tied Louisa's experiences to her books: Louisa would often take real life events and work them into fictional accounts.

The rest of the book was references and notes about the quotes and information. There were no pictures. I would have at least enjoyed a picture of Louisa.

There was no bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable biography to anyone who loves Louisa May Alcott's novels and wants to know more about her.

I received this book as a review copy from the publisher.


Reviewed by Debbie from Different Time, Different Place
(differenttimedifferentplace. blogspot. com)

I was disappointed by the complete lack of pictures in this book. Who writes a biography without at least one picture of the subject of the book? I would have liked to see a visual of Louisa May Alcott Alcott and some of the others discussed in the book, as well as photographs of the homes where the Alcott family lived. Other than this disappointment, the prose is fine and the story of Louisa May Alcott's life progresses well.

Like many girls, when I was 11 or 12, I read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Unlike many girls, the book made no real lasting impact on me. By that time, I was a voracious reader, and Little Women was just one more in a long line of books I was devouring. I enjoyed the book, and was glad I had read it, but it was not one of those books that I carried with me emotionally even days after I had finished it, like it seems to be for so many others.

Therefore, I was drawn to this biography not because I am a fan of Louisa May Alcott, but because I am a fan of biographies. In the past 5 or so years, I have gravitated towards biographies, even (and especially) biographies of people I don't know much about and may not be particularly interested in, because a truly good biography can open up a whole new world.

This book did not do that. I found this book very dry and frankly, rather dull. I suppose that ultimately that's because Alcott's life was, as described, "domestic," rather than filled with adventure, but it made the 302 pages devoted to the biography itself (as opposed to the index or citations) go very very slowly.

I would say that if you are a fan of Alcott, if you've read several of her books and would like to know the inspirations for them and how she wove her own life and experiences into them, then you will probably love this book. If, on the other hand, you just think it might be fun to read a biography of someone, this may not the book for you.

Also: where were the pictures?? What is a biography without pictures?? Stop describing these photographs -- which apparently do not exist on the internet, by the way -- to me, SHOW them to me!

This is a well written and enjoyable biography of Louisa May Alcott. By providing a chronological account of the lives of the Alcott's, it is much easier to appreciate both the times in which they lived and the influences that shaped their lives.

The first part of the book focuses mainly on Louisa's parents Abigail May and Bronson Alcott and their friends. As their friends included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne this is both interesting and relevant. The focus on Louisa herself depicts a complex person for whom writing was both a release and a burden. She was the second daughter in a family that suffered economic difficulties as a consequence of her father's idealistic and utopian schemes.

I found this an absorbing read, and I learned a great deal about Louisa May Alcott, her family and her writing. I did not know, until I read this book, that Miss Alcott had written adult novels (thrillers) as well as her children's fiction. I also did not know that the sales of her books had eclipsed Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville.

Two things jarred in what was otherwise an excellent and informative book. Firstly, the absence of photographs: I like to see images of those I read about. Secondly, I was thrown by the incorrect allocation of Meg's twins (Daisy and Demi) to Jo. It has been over forty years since I read `Little Women' and `Little Men' but parentage of the twins is a detail fixed in my mind.

Overall, this book is worth reading if you are interested in the life, times and writings of Louisa May Alcott.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. The author has written the script for a documentary on Louisa May Alcott that is to be shown on PBS in December. Since this book could be thought of as a "tie-in" to the TV show I was expecting a very cursory biography. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even though the book is only 300 pages long it "reads longer". (I mean that as a compliment.) It is just so chock-full of information that you want to savor every page. The author writes beautifully, with a charming, witty style. Louisa May Alcott, thru extensive quotations from her letters and journal, truly comes alive as a very modern woman. The book is full of many funny, perceptive, and touching observations that Ms. Alcott made about her father and sisters, and also about the fate of a "celebrity", which was something pretty new in 19th century America. (Gawkers would come to Concord to seek out the famous author. She would sometimes pretend to be "the maid" and also would sometimes duck out thru a window to hide in the woods!) We learn a lot about Louisa's "Concordian Neighbors", such as Emerson, Thoreau and Hawthorne, and also about Louisa's trips to Europe. The journal entries alone are a real goldmine, because Louisa talks about the tribulations of growing up in poverty; the financial and emotional burdens put on her after she became a successful writer; and of the loneliness involved in making the choice to be a serious artist, which to her entailed giving up matrimony and a family of her own. This is a wonderful, engaging book and if the PBS documentary is even half-as-good, it will be excellent. This is, easily, one of the best books I've read in 2009.

Louisa May Alcott has commanded passionate fans since "Little Women" was published (in two parts) in 1868 and 1890. The facts of Alcott's life are reasonably well-known, but Harriet Reisen's 2009 biography Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women (John MacRae Books) is a welcome addition to the canon. Reisen quotes extensively from letters and journals, particularly Louisa's but also reaching more widely.

Louisa's parents, Abigail May and Bronson Alcott, had strong ties to the abolitionist movement and were key figures in American transcendentalism, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and Elizabeth Peabody. Bronson Alcott's commitment to social change through idealist philosophy somehow precluded the realities of providing a living for his wife and four daughters, so Louisa spent her childhood and youth in poverty and constant relocation--though well-nurtured intellectually. Abigail earned what money she could, Bronson occasionally brought in small profits from schools or lecture tours, and they were assisted by family and friends; the family left debts behind them with every move.

Reisen notes that Louisa and her mother were temperamentally very alike; both were practical and very intense in their emotional lives. Louisa, the second child, remained passionate about abolition and, after the Civil War, women's suffrage. She took on responsibility for supporting her family: she taught, served as a governess and companion, and always she wrote--children's stories, magazine pieces, a collection of letters written while she was nursing wounded soldiers during the Civil War. The financial needs of her family were never-ending so she also wrote sensational and highly marketable stories under a pseudonym. "Little Women" and its sequels proved immensely profitable and Louisa was able to take care of her entire family.

Louisa's poor health is usually attributed to mercury poisoning from calomel which she was given for a case of typhoid; but current speculation is that Louisa had lupus and Reisen outlines the reasons for that theory. Louisa suffered greatly from joint pain, headache and digestive troubles in the later part of her life, and she died at 55, just two days after her father with whom she shared a birthday. Bronson Alcott was 88 at his death.

Louisa lived a life of service and duty; her father's sonnet "To L.M.A." --ending with the phrase quoted in my title--was read at her funeral service. Would she have married if her family's finances had been less dire? if her health had been good? Would she have been happier if she'd been able to marry and set up her own household, raise her own family? We can't know the answers, but Reisen gives us a window into the life of this remarkable woman. Richly researched, well organized, never over-analyzing the primary material, this biography was a pleasure.

Linda Bulger, 2010

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, by Harriet Reisen

"Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women" is a fascinating biography into the life of the author of the classic "Little Women," and also an in-depth look at her family. Reisen provides an extremely complete picture of Louisa's unusual childhood, and how it influenced her later publications.

The beginning of the book focuses on her father, Bronson Alcott, an unusual man for his time; he was one of the early Transcendentalists, and counted Emerson and Thoreau among his friends. Bronson focused on philosophy, experimental teaching, and lecturing rather than supporting his family; the Alcotts moved over twenty times while Louisa was a child. Often a wild, unruly child, Louisa had a rocky relationship with her father, but was a mini clone of her mother. It was Abby Alcott, Louisa's mother, who encouraged her to write as a way to express her feelings.

Well aware of her family's financial troubles as a child, Louisa's goal as an adult was to fully support her family, while trying to have a measure of independence for herself. Her start in writing came after publishing a book of children's stories, and indeed, her most successful novels would be written for youngsters. But Reisen explains to readers that Louisa wrote thrillers under pseudonyms, and they were rather popular - and likely her preferred format. Louisa would strive all of her adult life to write one great novel that she could be proud of, and never thought "Little Women" was that book, even though it was her biggest cashcow. And with Louisa's drive to earn earn earn, money was often the deciding factor in what she wrote.

Louisa is a tragic figure: she spent her entire life being pushed one way or another, feeling obligated to help family and friends at the expense of her own personal life. She literally wore herself out and died at the relatively young age of 55. She took care of her sisters, mother, father, and friends; and even when she was fully supported by her writing, she never really got to enjoy the fruit of her labor.

Reisen paints an interesting and educational picture of Louisa's life. While remembered mainly for "Little Women," Louisa was so much more than just a children's author. She was a feminist, an abolitionist, a poet, a Civil War nurse, philanthropist, and so on. I learned so much while reading this book, and not just about Louisa, but also about the Transcendentalists and the Civil War era. And while it could be easy to fall into hero worship, Reisen is careful to point out the flaws in Louisa's character, penning a realistic image.

The biography starts out a little slow, but if you give it a chance for a few chapters, I think you'll be pulled into a wonderful tale. Reisen makes use of abundant source material, including many quotes from Louisa's journals and poetry, but weaves them seamlessly into the narrative. I learned a lot, and had an enjoyable time doing so.

4/5.