Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her

Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother

Based on newly uncovered family papers, this groundbreaking and intensely moving portrait of Louisa May Alcottâ€™s relationship with her mother will completely transform our understanding of one of Americaâ€™s most beloved authors.

Louisa May Alcott was one of the most successful and bestselling authors of her day, earning more than any of her male contemporaries. Her classic Little Women has been a mainstay of American literature since its release nearly 150 years ago, as Jo March and her calm, beloved â€œMarmeeâ€ have shaped and inspired generations of young women. Biographers have consistently attributed Louisaâ€™s uncommon success to her father, Bronson Alcott, assuming that this outspoken idealist was the source of his daughterâ€™s progressive thinking and remarkable independence.

But in this riveting dual biography, award-winning biographer Eve LaPlante explodes these myths, drawing from a trove of surprising new documents to show that it was Louisaâ€™s actual â€œMarmee,â€ Abigail May Alcott, who formed the intellectual and emotional center of her world. Abigail, whose difficult life both inspired and served as a warning to her devoted daughters, pushed Louisa to excel at writing and to chase her unconventional dreams in a male-dominated world.

In Marmee & Louisa, LaPlante, Abigailâ€™s great-niece and Louisaâ€™s cousin, re-creates their shared story from diaries, letters, and personal papers, some recently discovered in a family attic and many others that were thought to have been destroyed. Here at last Abigail is revealed in her full complexityâ€”long dismissed as a quiet, self-effacing background figure, she comes to life as a fascinating writer and thinker in her own right. A politically active feminist firebrand, she was a highly opinionated, passionate, ambitious woman who fought for universal civil rights, publicly advocating for abolition, womenâ€™s suffrage, and other defin-ing moral struggles of her era.

In this groundbreaking work, LaPlante paints an exquisitely moving and utterly convincing portrait of a woman decades ahead of her time, and the fiercely independent daughter whose life was deeply entwined with her motherâ€™s dreams of freedom. This gorgeously written story of two extraordinary women is guaranteed to transform our view of one of Americaâ€™s most beloved authors.
Country USA
Manufacturer Free Press
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2012-11-06
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781451620665

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Free Press
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2012-11-06
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781451620665

Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother

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