Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography [Paperback]

Martha Saxton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 1995

A modern biography of an ambivalent rebel and irreverent feminist who became, in spite of herself, one of our most popular authors.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Columbia professor Saxton's 1977 biography of pioneering feminist and enduring novelist Alcott includes a new introduction by the author.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (September 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374524602
• ISBN-13: 978-0374524609
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,539,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A history that keeps your interest, October 3, 2000

By 

Kimberly Wells (Shreveport, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography (Paperback)

I grew up on Louisa May Alcott's books-- and wanted to "BE" Jo March. Well, Saxton's biography traces the parts of Jo that are Alcott, and points out the important differences between the fiction Alcott created and the life she lived. The biography points out Alcott's troubled relationship with her family, her need to support them and feel important, and her severe disabilities later in life (the time she was writing most of her work) because of a "Mercury Cure." Saxton takes quite an antagonistic view towards Bronson Alcott, and her sympathies are quite "feminist" in origin-- but all in all, this book will be a great read, and teach you a lot about this incredible, under-rated writer who is a part of our cultural heritage.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Most Uncommon Little Woman, December 22, 2006

By 

Cheryl Lynn Blum "The Book Lady" (Long Island, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography (Paperback)

I can't remember the last time a book made me cry; it was probably 50 years ago when I first read "Little Women"; Beth's death was unbearably sad, but there is a death in this book that is even more shocking and unexpected, all the more so because it is a biography, and not fiction. Louisa May Alcott (the middle name "May" was not added to her name for the lilt, as in Cheryl "Lynn," but was in fact her mother's maiden name -- a charming custom at the time, but not in the best interest of security, today, almost like my telling you my mother's maiden name is Halper) lived a mean, hard-scrabble life. Growing up in a family of four daughters, with a transcendentalist-philosopher father who did not believe in working for pay, owning property, or running a business; Louisa and her sisters subsisted on a diet of raw apples and cold water for much of their childhood, with the occasional hard cracker for fiber. Her father did believe in charity, however, so her life -- and her mother's life -- was a constant scratch for money to support the family, any way they could. Louisa was a teacher, governess, and paid companion to an invalid woman; until at last she was able to bring in enough money through her writing to keep her parents comfortable; although there were no luxuries in the Alcott homestead, eventually she was able to install a furnace. Even then, it seemed, when she was a famous author, earning large advances for her books, there was never enough money for her to feel secure.

She did indeed have an older sister, who married a steady, boring young man (the Meg and John Brooke of "Little Women") and a frail sister, Beth, who met the same fate as her eponymous doppelganger in "LW", and a young, pretty artist sister, the baby and beauty of the family, named Abigail, nicknamed Abby (after her mother, who was nicknamed Abba) who changed her name to May (to distinguish herself from her mother).

The world of the Alcotts in Massachusetts was populated with the era's greatest thinkers: Ralph Waldo Emerson was their next-door neighbor; as a teenager Louisa had a mad crush on a local gardener, Henry David Thoreau, a misogynistic mama's boy whom one could kindly describe as a "shrub shlub." Nathaniel Hawthorne was another neighbor; Walt Whitman made an appearence in Concord; May, studying painting in Europe, befriended no less a light than Mary Cassatt, the pre-eminent female artist of the time. The Alcotts' world was peopled with women's suffragists (Louisa voting for the first time -- in a school board election!) and abolitionists such as John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison.

Louisa's greatest personal triumph was probably her service as a nurse during the Civil War; although the adventure ended badly, and left her health in ruins for the rest of her life, it was there that she used her hands, and head, and heart to heal the broken young men in the Grand Army hospital. Surprisingly, and sadly, the writing of "Little Women" was not the heartfelt outpouring of a romantic soul, but a simply a work ground out by a sick, tired woman to pay her family's endless debts.

When, towards the end, Emerson appears in the family's parlor -- for he had been asked to "break the news" of yet another sad passing (and you know your family is distinguished when America's greatest living [and perhaps all-time] philosopher is in your home to deliver sad news) -- you'll reach for your Puffs, with Aloe.

But don't cry for Louisa, when death finally comes, it is an almost blessed relief.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting times, January 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography (Hardcover)

The world that Louisa May Alcott lived in was amazing--personal family friends included Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, etc. Unfortunately, this isn't a terrific biography because the author falls into an "overquoting" pattern. Instead of making the story flow and drawing conclusions from the family's extensive journals, Saxton just endlessly quotes passages. It grew tedious. For an excellent biography that doesn't fall into this trap, check out "Lindberg" by A. Scott Berg.