Eden's Outcasts - John Matteson

Goodness, I haven't posted in awhile!  I have been reading a lot though, travelling took me away and so its time to catch up.

This is the story of Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, and her father, Bronson Alcott.
It was a fascinating, complex, historic relationship.  (Amos) Bronson Alcott was a member of the transcendentalism movement of the 1830's and 1840's, centered around Concord, Massachusetts. He was a friend and colleague of Emerson, Whitman, Hawthorne and Thoreau - heavy hitters!

Bronson's high ideals did not bode well for the real life care of his wife and 4 daughters, of which Louisa May was number 3.  He was an advocate of the values and beliefs exhibited in the book Pilgrim's Progress and Aids to Reflections by Samuel Coleridge and a devoted father though not a consistent provider.  For example, he kept diaries of the lives of each of his daughters from the time they were born through adolescence to develop a better understanding of childhood development.  The author notes that the children were exposed  to "an almost impossibly dissonant combination of superior intellectual opportunities and frightful worldly deprivation".  The first two thirds of this biography focuses on Bronson's life and work and his friendships with men who would become giants in literature.  Bronson eventually posted some of his own writings but they never rose to the level of his contemporaries in enduring popularity.

If you are like me, you'll keep plugging through, getting a picture of what the U.S. was like prior to and during the Civil War, some distance from the front lines.  Louisa May responded to the calamity by volunteering as a nurse in a hospital for Civil War soldiers   The experience contributed to her maturing from a sheltered childhood to the gritty reality of adult life.

She began writing quite young and published short stories.  Her writing style involved going into a "vortex" of concentrated, frenzied writing, so intense that the author speculates she may have suffered from manic episodes.  Her fictionalized story of four sisters growing up in Little Women, based heavily on herself (as Jo) and her sisters and parents, was a big success and resulted in her readers clamoring for more stories of the lives of the March family, leading to the books, Little Men and finally Jo's Boys.  The influence of her father's teachings is brought out and examined and adds a richness to my memories of Little Women.

She was seen as a champion for women's rights (she was the first woman to register to vote in Concord) and the biographer explores the reactions to her books by the young women of her day.  He states that "altruism lies at the root of Alcott's feminism".  His discussion is well thought out and weaves the stories of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy into his evidence.  He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for the story.

Louisa May Alcott never married or had children of her own and died only a few days after her father.

Published: 2007  Read: October 2012  Genre: Biography

March - Geraldine Brooks

Now here's a book I could really sink my teeth into!

I have enjoyed other books by this author, most recently People of the Book and Year of Wonder.
This is the story of the father of the "little Women" book by Louis May Alcott.  Mr March, invisible mostly in Alcott's story, tells of his life, from a young man peddling wares in the South through his meeting and marrying Marmee, to his service as a chaplain during the Civil War.

What I truly admire about Brroks' writing is her extensive research and deft weaving of facts of the historical times she portrays into the lives of her fictional characters.

Her story draws inspiration from the life of Alcott's real life father, Bronson Alcott whose diaries and writings she read and researched as the basis for the March character.  I had read the biography of Louise and her father, Eden's Outcast and was delighted to see it as the framework for Mr March.  I don't think she ever gave him a first name.  Highly recommended.

Published: 2005  Read:  July 2018  Genre: historical fiction

Rose in Bloom - Louisa May Alcott

I enjoy going to estate sales.  I picked up this book at one recently because I remember as a little girl reading books of this style. They must have been inexpensive but they looked nice, hard-covered and shiny covers.  I hadn't realized that they were "modern abridged editions" back then; I had always thought I'd read the original classics.

This story is part of the series Alcott wrote after "Little Women".  Rose was orphaned and taken in by a group of aunts who had many sons who became her cousin playmates.  In this volume, Rose has returned from a trip abroad with her Uncle Alex, a budding young woman ready for adulthood who finds her cousins have grown into dashing young men.

It is still a good story to read, with strong family and moral values and a life when manners and decorum mattered.  Having read of the life of Alcott and her father (Eden's Outcasts) I saw the influence of her beliefs in the story.  I noticed her references to the writers of her day; Thoreau, Emerson and Keats.  I was able to reflect on how reading these stories when I was young undoubtedly influenced my attitudes toward life, romance and being a woman. I felt the  vocabulary was advanced for the age I would have been when reading it the first time.  I plan to seek out the unabridged version and see how it differs.

Published: 1876 (original) 1952 (abridged version)  Read: February 2013  Genre: Fiction

People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks

A book conservationist is hired to examine and repair an ancient Jewish book, the Sarajevo Haggadah.  The story tells of her discoveries of minute evidence of its past hidden in its pages which are explained in flashbacks to their origins.  The story is based on a true precious relic that has been a symbol of the various faiths living in harmony for centuries.  This is a work of historical fiction, so the author creates fictional characters to populate the facts.

Brooks has written other books of historical fiction: March which tells the story of the father of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women; Nine Parts of Desire, which I don’t think I’ve read and Year of Wonders, about a town during the Black Plague. 

People of the Book tells of the terrible tragedies of wars and hatred and the enduring strength of the people who persist despite the hardship.  I learned more about all religions – Jewish, Christian, Muslim and how much they are intertwined.  A wonderful read, highly recommended.

Published:  2008  Read: June 2018  Genre: Historical Fiction