Did You Know? Louisa May Alcott

After my fascinating conversation with Jo March yesterday, I thought it would be fun to go in search of some fun facts related to the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott. Here's what I was able to find out.

Did You Know...

• Little Women was published in two volumes? The first, Little Women, was published in 1868, and the second, Little Wives, was published in 1869.
• The book was one of the first novels to portray women as independent and strong-minded? It's views were decades ahead of its time.
•  Little Women was popular with women of many different social backgrounds because there was something in there that everyone could relate to?
• The book opened up a new market of young women and girl readers?
• Growing up in New England, Louisa May Alcott and her family were transcendentalists? They rubbed elbows with folks like Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau.
• When she first started writing, she used the pen name of A.M. Barnard?
• During the Civil War, she spent six weeks as a nurse in a field hospital in Washington?
• The character of Jo is based on Louisa May Alcott?
• While serving in the field hospital during the war, she contracted typhoid fever?
• She died in 1888 at the age of 55, just two days after her father?

Interesting stuff, that. Now, here's the trailer from the 1994 film version of Little Women. I have to admit that I love this movie--there's so much great stuff going on, and it's very well done!