Today is the birthday (in 1832) of Louisa May Alcott, who I have always thought of as a real Massachusetts girl, with her Transcendentalist upbringing, her independent spirit, and her lifelong reformist tendencies. Sometimes it’s hard to separate her from Jo in Little Women, but she was a real person who served as a Civil War nurse (briefly) rather than waiting at home in Concord, who had many menial jobs, who wrote sensationalistic penny dreadfuls under a pseudonym as well as her classic bestsellers, and who was a lifelong abolitionist and suffragette. She never married, and died at 55 from what some people say was lupus, others mercury poisoning, and she herself thought might be meningitis. I know Louisa had her own life, but I can’t help associating her with Jo, primarily because of the movies rather than the book. When I picture Louisa, I generally think of Katherine Hepburn playing Jo in the 1933 version of Little Women, rather than June Allyson in the 1949 version or Winona Ryder in the 1994 film; I think June and Winona did well, but Kate is seared in my memory. If I had not seen any of these films, perhaps I could separate Louisa and Jo; but I have (and there you see my main teaching challenge: many of my students have learned their “history” from films).
Stacy Tolman drawing of Louisa, reproduced in Lilian Whiting’s Boston Days (1902); a 1933 publicity pamphlet for George Cukor’s 1933 Little Women.
Back to the book. I have several editions of Little Women, but my most prized one is an 1880 copy published by Roberts Brothers in Boston and illustrated by Frank Thayer Merrill. I’ve looked at other editions, but I like my Merrill best, and since I’ve made the Louisa/Jo connection, this is how I picture the Louisa and her world as well.
The last way I picture Louisa is in Concord, at Orchard House and its environs. And when I think of her there, I wonder about her and her family’s relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, who purchased the Alcott’s first Concord house after he fled Salem. He renamed their “Hillside” the Wayside, and it is just down the road from Orchard House: apparently the Alcotts even became the Hawthorne’s tenants while their house was undergoing renovations. Nevertheless, the relationship does not appear to have been a close one, and I wonder why. A recent book by Eva LaPlante, Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother, explores the relationship between Louisa and her mother, Abigail May Alcott, who was a descendant of the Salem Witch Trials judge Samuel Sewall. Of course, we know that Nathaniel Hawthorne was a descendant of another Witch Trials judge, John Hathorne. You would think that Louisa and Nathaniel could have bonded over these shared skeletons in their closets, but perhaps not.
November 29th, 2012 at 8:04 am
great post Donna! I didn’t know that Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Alcott family were associated like this. I’ve had a visit to Orchard House on my day trip list for a long time… we’ll get there one day!
November 29th, 2012 at 8:50 am
I am sure you will–they usually decorate it for Christmas.
November 29th, 2012 at 8:43 am
part of many childhoods I imagine – certainly mine and still have the books! Wonder if the George Cukor is available?
November 29th, 2012 at 8:51 am
Greetings, Julia–the DVD is available over here on Amazon.
November 29th, 2012 at 8:49 am
Apparently Nathaniel Hawthorne didn’t much care for Bronson Alcott; there is a possibly apocryphal story that Bronson regularly sat outside Orchard House waiting for passers-by to engage in conversation. Hawthorne developed the habit of checking to see if Bronson was outside, and if so, cutting up back through the hillside and the woods to get into town.
The children were close, though; Julian Hawthorne especially spent quite a bit of time at Orchard House, and from time to time he’s portrayed in living history at Orchard House. I think there’s some small speculation that he was part inspiration for Laurie.
November 29th, 2012 at 9:01 am
Oh thank you for your comments, Amanda; I am very curious about the relationship between the two families.
November 29th, 2012 at 11:49 am
I grew up in Concord. As a young child back in the late1920’s I lived in the downtown area and had an older friend who would take me for picnics at The Bridge. There was an old woman who was a sketcher or painter who also frequented The Bridge with whom we would talk. She had her art work for sale there. She told us she had known Louisa and had taken art lessons from her. At that time Hawthorn’s house looked quite haunted. There couldn’t have been a better place to grow up in than Concord at that time!
November 29th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
Wow, Anna, thanks for sharing your history: this is a very special remembrance.
November 29th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
I’ve often wondered how much that book (and in particular, Jo) affected me growing up. Thank you for this!