Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888) was an American novelist and poet, best known for her classic novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871), and Jo’s Boys (1886). Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, she was raised in a transcendentalist household in Massachusetts, where she was influenced by prominent thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Alcott began writing at a young age and published her first poem in 1851. During the Civil War, she served as a nurse in a Union hospital, an experience that inspired her book Hospital Sketches (1863). Her breakthrough came with Little Women, which drew from her own experiences growing up with her sisters and became an instant success.
Throughout her life, Alcott was an advocate for women’s rights and social reforms, participating in the women’s suffrage movement and other causes. Despite facing health issues later in life, she continued to write prolifically until her death from complications believed to be related to mercury poisoning from her nursing duties. Alcott’s legacy endures through her influential works that continue to resonate with readers today.
