Jack and Jill - Alcott, Louisa May

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Résumé :
Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 - March 6, 1888) was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women, set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868. This novel is loosely based on her childhood experiences with her three sisters. Alcott was the daughter of noted transcendentalist and educator Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May Alcott. Alcott's early education included lessons from the naturalist Henry David Thoreau. She received the majority of her schooling from her father. She received some instruction also from writers and educators such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller, who were all family friends. She later described these early years in a newspaper sketch entitled Transcendental Wild Oats. The sketch was reprinted in the volume Silver Pitchers (1876), which relates the family's experiment in plain living and high thinking at Fruitlands. As an adult, Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist. In 1847, the family housed a fugitive slave for one week. In 1848, Alcott read and admired the Declaration of Sentiments published by the Seneca Falls Convention on women's rights. Poverty made it necessary for Alcott to go to work at an early age as an occasional teacher, seamstress, governess, domestic helper, and writer. Her first book was Flower Fables (1849), a selection of tales originally written for Ellen Emerson, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1860, Alcott began writing for the Atlantic Monthly. When the American Civil War broke out, she served as a nurse in the Union Hospital at Georgetown, D.C., for six weeks in 1862-1863. Her letters home - revised and published in the Commonwealth and collected as Hospital Sketches (1863, republished with additions in 1869) - garnered her first critical recognition for her observations and humor. Her novel Moods (1864), based on her own experience, was also promising. She also wrote passionate, fiery novels and sensational stories under the nom de plume A. M. Barnard. Among these are A Long Fatal Love Chase and Pauline's Passion and Punishment. Her protagonists for these tales are willful and relentless in their pursuit of their own aims, which often include revenge on those who have humiliated or thwarted them. Written in a style which was wildly popular at the time, these works achieved immediate commercial success. (Wikipedia.org)

Biographie:
Louisa May Alcott, born on November 29, 1832, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, grew up in a family deeply engaged in social reform and education. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a transcendentalist and educator, influencing Louisa's ideals despite the family's financial struggles. Surrounded by notable thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau, she developed a passion for writing early in life.Alcott worked various jobs to support her family, but her time as a Civil War nurse profoundly impacted her. This experience inspired Hospital Sketches, bringing her public attention and fueling her literary career. Her greatest success came with Little Women (1868), a semi-autobiographical novel that captured the lives of the March sisters.Despite health challenges later in life, Alcott continued to write and advocate for social causes, including women's suffrage and abolition. She never married, choosing instead a life focused on family and literature. Louisa May Alcott passed away on March 6, 1888, leaving a legacy as one of America's most beloved authors....

Sommaire:
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American novelist and poet best known for her beloved classic Little Women. Born in Pennsylvania, she grew up in a family committed to education and social reform, and her experiences in a progressive household deeply influenced her writing. Alcott began her career as a writer in her teens, initially penning stories for magazines and working as a nurse during the Civil War. Her literary works, often reflecting her own experiences and social beliefs, include novels such as Little Men and Jo's Boys. Alcott's writing has endured for its rich character development and timeless themes of family, ambition, and personal growth....