Louisa May Alcott

Essay by ldtacoHigh School, 10th grade March 2004

download word file, 4 pages 2.5

Louisa May Alcott is probably one of the most famous writers that ever walked this planet. She goes down in the record books with greats such as William Shakespeare, J.R.R. Tolkien, and many others that are writing geniuses.

Louisa May Alcott was born on her father's thirty third birthday, November 29, 1832, to Amos and Abigail Alcott in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She was the second born and the most mischievous of the two. Her father thought that she was unusually strong willed, and temperamental. He told his father-in-law that he thought she would affect the world in some way; that, soon, proved to be true. Her outward appearance was hard and cold. She had dark, olive skin, and piercing gray eyes, traits of her Portuguese Jewish ancestors. Amos' favorite daughter was by far Anna, the oldest.

In 1834, Amos moved his family to Boston, Massachusetts, where along with Elizabeth Peabody, started the Temple School.

His goal was to reform education and when the parents found out about this, they immediately unenrolled. In 1835, the Alcott's third child, Elizabeth, arrived. In 1836, Amos became a lecturer on topics such as materialism, poetry, and the mystery of life. In 1840, they moved to a cottage in Concord, Massachusetts. There, he met a good friend named Emerson who agreed to help him in his "philosophical conversations". In July 1840, Abigail was born to the Alcotts. Amos went to England and returned with three men, Charles Lane, his son, and Henry Wright. They began to form a communal society. Lane restricted there play time and forced them to be vegetarians. On June 1, 1843 they moved to an 100 acre farm in Harvard, Massachusetts to form a much larger communal society. In January 1844 they quit the communal society and rented a couple of room...