Louisa May Alcott

I remember, years ago, going to Concord, Massachusetts. There, in the light of a late spring day, sat an old, gray house. Surrounding the house, grass, bushes, and trees grew in the brightest shade of green. There was a small garden nearby, filled with flowers of every color and attracting buzzing bees. An old, weathered barn stood comfortably to the side. A short wooden fence surrounded the property. There was a shabbiness to the entire scene, but it was comfortable, lovely. It made me feel like home.
If you haven't guessed yet, I was at Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott wrote her most famous work: Little Women.

Who has read Little Women? If you haven't, well, go listen to the free audiobook right now. You'll thank me.

In her childhood, Louisa’s worldviews were molded by those around her. Her mother taught her Christian values, including temperance, hard work, charity, and hope - a bit like Marmee, you say? Of course.

Her father was a self-employed schoolteacher. Louisa said of him, “My father taught in the wise way which unfolds what lies in the child's nature, as a flower blooms, rather than crammed it, like a Strasbourg goose, with more than it could digest.” He taught boys, girls, blacks, and whites equally, and he taught them to love learning. Louisa found that learning was interesting and enjoyable and that education was for everyone.

When she was seventeen, Louisa moved to Boston to work as a tutor and laundress, sending her earnings to her family. Then, in 1852, she published her first poem. Yay for Louisa! Here it is in all its wonderfulness:

Sunlight

By Louisa May Alcott

It comes from its faraway home in the sky, 
And it gladdens each heart, it brightens each eye, 
It enters the casement, it enters the door, 
A welcome guest to the wealthy and poor. 

It peeps o'er the mountain, it smiles on the plain, 
And the bright young flowers have awakened again 
From their dewy repose; and the blue Summer air 
Bears upward their fragrant burden of prayer. 

It pierces the depths of the forest dense, 
Dispelling the darkness and gloom from thence, 
Arraying each tree in a vestment of green, 
While its rivulets gleam with a silvery sheen. 

The rippling sea has a sweeter sound 
As the up-flashing spray glistens brightly around, 
And the wild forest bird in his home 'mid the trees 
Warbles rapturous lays as its glory he sees. 

Thou sunlight of beauty! Thou beam from bright Heaven! 
May the comfort and joy which thy presence has given. 
Be the foretaste of far richer ones yet to come, 
When we rest in the light of an eternal home.

Louisa didn't earn much money from selling that poem, but it inspired her to continue to write. She published many novels and poems, earning money for her family, until 1862.

Who knows what happened in 1860s America?

Of course: the Civil War.

So Louisa applied to work as a union nurse in the Civil War. Now if you know anything about the Civil War, you'll know that it was pretty gory and horribly sad for everyone. Louisa wrote letters home to her family, detailing bitter stories she heard from soldiers and gory experiences treating wounds. What I find interesting, though, if that she never wrote sounding sad or down about life - she took a positive tone in her letters. Only a few weeks into her work, however, she contracted typhoid fever and was forced to return home for recovery.

This is not a picture with Louisa in it. I can't find any sources with her photo as a nurse. But this is an example of what she might have looked like when she was a nurse in the Civil War.

You can actually read Louisa's Civil War nurse experiences! She revised and edited her letters from the time for readers! They're compiled in a book called Hospital Sketches. I've never actually read the whole thing, so I can't exactly recommend it, but it exists.

Six years after coming home, sitting at the shelf desk her father had made for her in Orchard House, Louisa wrote Little Women. It was an instant success, so she never really needed to write again for money. But for the joy of it, she continued to write.

She never did fully recover from that typhoid fever, though. Sadly, she died in 1888 when her immune system gave in to the sickness.

Never once did Louisa waver from what she knew to be right. She lived in accordance to her morals. Her every action followed what she knew to be good and true. She loved her family with all her heart and did everything she could for them. Her experiences as a Civil War nurse show a kind, patriotic, brave, cheerful, God-fearing woman. She was moral and virtuous in every way.

And I am so glad she wrote Little Women, because it has taught me that I should be just as moral and virtuous in my life. I have been deeply impacted by this woman. I hope whoever is reading this can feel something of the gratitude I do for her!

Have a Smiley Day!

Sources -
www.louisamayalcott.org
Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/alcott/
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/ALCOTT/ABOUTLA.html