Happy Birthday to Louisa May Alcott

I am writing one of the final parts of my book, in which my grandmother visits Boston with me and my family; it would be the last time she visited Massachusetts (this also has a very important scene with me and my great-grandmother, for we visited her there, too). My grandmother went to Concord with my family and visited Louisa May Alcott's house. I have been happily re-reading Little Women as I work on this scene--I had forgotten how important this book was to me as a child. I never wanted to be like any of the sisters except Jo March--I wanted to the be exactly like her, down to the fact that she was a writer who had the house garret to herself as a place to write and think. I hated that she married Mr. Bhaer and not Laurie--that always rang so false to me, even when I was a kid (in fact, Alcott didn't originally want to marry Jo March off at all, but her publishers insisted that this was done). So, it was interesting to mention the book to Mr. Strega today, and find out from him that Garrison Keillor mentioned Alcott on The Writer's Almanac recently. Today, November 29th, is her birthday. I remember arguments with my friends over which of the March sisters from Little Women
were our favorites, a topic more heated sometimes than choosing which Beatle we liked best.


The reason for the trip to the Alcott house in my book is that it was the first time I learned something about what a writer could do (my book ends with the indication that I am beginning to become a writer and that writing was a way for me to survive). My grandmother loved Little Women and so was eager to go to Orchard House (the Alcott's residence). I was just as excited, having read an abridged version of Little Women when I was very young. I fell in love with Orchard House and wonder if it didn't influence the kind of old houses I am drawn to even now. At any rate, my grandmother and I looked all around for the big Laurence house, where Laurie had lived--I had been so eager to see this, and yet there was nothing like that anywhere. Finally, my grandmother went to the docent and said, "Excuse me, where is the Lawrence house?" The docent was very kind, and said, "I'm sorry, the Laurence house doesn't exist. It was all in her imagination." Talk about shock!
My grandmother was so disappointed, and I felt a mixture of disappointment mixed with complete awe that someone could create a whole world like that.

By the way, don't despair, all you Little Women fans--Laurie was based on a real person, a Polish freedom fighter Alcott nicknamed Laddie and with whom she had an unchaperoned two weeks' visit, in Paris (gasp!).