The Journals of Louisa May Alcott by Louisa May Alcott

And very happy hours they were to us, for my father taught in the wise way which unfolds what lies in the child’s nature as a flower blooms, rather than crammed in, like a Strasburg goose, with more than it could digest.” However, the Alcott family struggled financially and always would. Louisa once wrote, “I never went to school except to my father or such governesses as from time to time came into the family … so we had lessons each morning in the study. Meanwhile, his family was living in Concord in one of several houses they would occupy and Louisa was being educated at home. When Bronson Alcott enrolled a young African American girl in his school, insisting on a school policy of color blindness, parents withdrew their children and the school closed by 1840. Their work produced Alcott’s book Conversations with Children (1836), which shocked Bostonians when they learned he was teaching children a more “personalized” view of Jesus. To assist him with teaching, he relied on two of the brightest women in Boston-Elizabeth Peabody and Margaret Fuller, who were also Transcendentalists. In 1834, Bronson Alcott moved his family to Boston where he opened his progressive and controversial Temple School in the Tremont Temple on Tremont Street. Two more sisters, Elizabeth and Abby May would succeed. Louisa’s older sister, Anna, had already been born. As an educator, Bronson Alcott stressed the intellectual, physical, and emotional development of each child on his or her own terms, through dialogue between teacher and child.

He was also part of the Transcendentalist movement, which encouraged the perfection of the individual. Louisa’s father, Bronson Alcott, was a teacher who would become one of America’s most influential reformers of education. Louisa’s mother was a member of the prominent May family of Boston where they attended King’s Chapel. Louisa was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1832 to Bronson Alcott and Abigail May.

When her writing began to sell, living in Boston kept her close to her publisher, Roberts Brothers, and to other reformers and literary figures.

Dorchester/Upham’s Corner Women’s Heritage TrailĪlthough author Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) is best known for her book, Little Women, describing her family life in Concord, Massachusetts, she had several homes in Boston where she was better able to earn money to support her family.Road to the Vote: The Boston Women’s Suffrage Trail.

The Journals of Louisa May Alcott by Louisa May Alcott