Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania to Abigail May Alcott and Bronson Alcott. Her father was a philosopher and educator who embraced transcendentalism. .
Louisa May Alcott studied at the experimental Temple School in Boston and, later, at home. She had the unique privelige of being tutored by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Fruitlands Utopian Community.
In June 1843, when Louisa May Alcott was 10 years old, Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane co-founded the utopian community called Fruitlands. Fruitlands required its members to abstain from eating or using any animal products or cotton produced by slaves. .
The commune attracted a variety of interesting individuals including a nudist ("Adamist") and a man who subsisted on nothing but apples for a year! .
Fruitlands was a complete failure due to poor planning and conflict between the Alcotts and Lane. Toward the end of the experiment, Lane tried to convince Bronson Alcott to leave his family and join the Shakers, a controversial religious movement. However, love for his wife and children won out and he parted ways with Charles Lane. The commune disbanded in January, 1844. Louisa May Alcott's later work Transcendental Wild Oats is based on her experience at Fruitlands. .
Louisa's Scandalous Stories.
The failure of Fruitlands left Bronson Alcott depressed and unable to work. Louisa May Alcott became the family breadwinner. She worked for a time as a domestic, and later as a writer. Her first works were published pseudononymously (A.M. Barnard and others). Many of her stories were gory "potboilers" featuring strong, self-sufficient women.
Civil War Interlude.
Louisa May Alcott served as a nurse during the Civil War, but upon contracting typhoid was sent home. She never completely recovered. Hospital Sketches, a collection of letters she wrote during the war, was published in 1863 and gave Louisa May Alcott her first taste of literary fame.
