LKTLE W^^^B^^ LETTERS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 JESSIE BOilSTELLE 
 MARIAN DE FOREST 
 

 
 
 G ^ 
 
 0" 
 
 
 
 
 ■% <^^' 
 
 '^* 
 
 
 
 O. J 
 
 
 - V ,',7 > 
 
 
 
 > « , -^^ 
 
 * 9 1 -\ * \V ^ , „ 
 
 
 cv^' 
 
 
\"°^ 
 
 
 •^ 
 
 .^^. 
 
 .0-' 
 
 
 
 v>V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .#^ 
 
 V. '^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 r> ^b. 
 
 X^^^ 
 
 
 
 'b. 
 
 ' 8 * <? 
 
 - ■ _Cj^ 'J, o ■ 
 
 
 
 
LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead. 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
LITTLE WOMEN 
 LETTERS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 SELECTED BY 
 
 JESSIE BONSTELLE 
 
 AND 
 
 MARIAN DEFOREST 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1914 
 

 Copyright, igi4. 
 By John S. P. Alcott. 
 
 All 7-ights reserved 
 Published, September, 19 14 
 
 Set up and electrotyped by J . S. Gushing Co., Norwood , Mass. , U. S.A. 
 Pressworkby S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
 SEP 23 1914 
 
 (DGi,A;J805 31 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Next to the joy of giving to the Alcott- 
 loving pubHc " Little Women " as a play, 
 is the privilege and pleasure of offering 
 this book of letters, revealing the child- 
 hood and home life of the beloved Little 
 Women. 
 
 May they bring help and happiness to 
 many mothers and inspiration and love 
 to many children. 
 
 [v] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. 
 
 The "Really, Truly" True 
 
 I 
 
 11. 
 
 The Alcott Boy; The Alcott 
 
 
 
 Man 
 
 10 
 
 III. 
 
 The Alcott Children . 
 
 28 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Alcott Baby Book 
 
 39 
 
 V. 
 
 Letters and Conversations with 
 
 
 
 Children .... 
 
 59 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Mother's Influence . 
 
 98 
 
 VII. 
 
 Children's Diaries 
 
 122 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Girlhood and Womanhood . 
 
 140 
 
 IX. 
 
 Friendships and Beliefs 
 
 162 
 
 
 Chronology 
 
 19s 
 
 Ivli] 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A. Bronson Alcott at the age of 53, from 
 
 the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth . 54 
 
 Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to 
 
 Louisa, Nov. 29, 1839 ... 82 
 
 Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to 
 
 Louisa, June 21, 1840 ... 86 
 
 Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to 
 
 Elizabeth, 1840 .... 92 
 
 Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, 
 
 from a Daguerreotype . . 106 
 
 Anna Bronson Alcott, from a Daguerre- 
 otype . . . . . .122 
 
 Abba May Alcott, from a Photograph . 142 
 
 Louisa May Alcott, from a Daguerre- 
 otype 160 
 
 [ix] 
 
LITTLE WOMEN 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE 
 
 OF ALCOTT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 The "Really, Truly" True 
 
 WHEN " Little Women," the play, 
 reopened to many readers the 
 pages of ''Little Women," the 
 book, that delightful chronicle of family 
 life, dramatist and producer learned from 
 many unconscious sources the depth of 
 Louisa M. Alcott's human appeal. Stand- 
 ing one night at the back of the theater 
 as the audience was dispersing, they lis- 
 tened to its comments on the play. 
 
 "A wonderful picture of home life, 
 [I] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 only we don't have such homes," said 
 a big, prosperous-looking man to his 
 wife, with a touch of regret in his voice. 
 
 "Yes," agreed his young daughter, a 
 tall, slender, graceful girl, as she snuggled 
 down cosily into her fur coat and tucked 
 a bunch of violets away from the touch 
 of the frosty night, "it is beautiful; 
 but, daddy, it isn't real. There never 
 was such a family." 
 
 But it is real ; there was such a family, 
 and in letters, journals, and illustration 
 this little book gives the history of the 
 four Little Women, the Alcott girls, 
 whom Louisa immortalized in her great- 
 est story: Anna, who is Meg in "Little 
 Women" ; Louisa, the irrepressible and 
 ambitious Jo ; Elizabeth, the little Beth 
 
 [2] 
 
THE "really, truly" TRUE 
 
 of the book ; and Abba May, the grace- 
 ful and statuesque Amy. 
 
 Rare influences were at work In this 
 ideal American home, where the intel- 
 lectual and brilliant father was gifted 
 in all ways except those that led to 
 material success, and the wise and gentle 
 mother combined with her loyalty and 
 devotion to her husband a stanch, 
 practical common sense, which more 
 than once served to guide the frail 
 Alcott bark through troubled seas. 
 
 Following her remarkable success as 
 a writer of short stories, Louisa M. 
 Alcott was asked for a book. She said 
 at first it was impossible, but repeated 
 requests from her publishers brought 
 from her the announcement that the 
 [3] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 only long story she could write would be 
 about her own family. "Little Women" 
 resulted, and, in erecting this House of 
 Delight for young and old, Louisa Alcott 
 builded better than she knew. Her Jo 
 has been the inspiration of countless 
 girls, and the many-sidedness of her 
 character is indicated by the widely 
 diverging lines of endeavor which Jo's 
 example has suggested to the girl readers 
 of the story. 
 
 In the case of the two editors, both 
 from early childhood found their inspi- 
 ration in Jo. One, patterning after her 
 idol, sought success in a stage career, 
 beginning to "act" before a mirror, 
 with a kitchen apron for a train and a 
 
 buttonhook for a dagger. The other, 
 l4l 
 
THE "really, truly" TRUE 
 
 always with a pencil in hand, first copied 
 Jo by writing "lurid tales" for the weekly 
 sensation papers, and later emerged into 
 Newspaper Row. 
 
 It was more than a year after the 
 success of *' Little Women" as a play 
 had become a part of theatrical history 
 that they visited the scenes hallowed 
 by the memories of the Little Women. 
 They wished to see Concord together, 
 so they made a Sentimental Journey to 
 the House of Alcott. 
 
 The sun was shining, and the air was 
 
 crisp — just such a day as Miss Alcott 
 
 described in the Plumfield harvest home, 
 
 the last chapter in "Little Women." 
 
 They spent hours in Orchard House, 
 
 touching reverently the small personal 
 (5] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 effects of Louisa M. Alcott, seeing the 
 shelf between the windows in that 
 little upper room, where she wrote and 
 dreamed. They even climbed to the 
 garret and wondered which window was 
 her favorite scribbling seat, with a tin 
 kitchen for her manuscripts, a pile of 
 apples for her refreshment, and Scrabble, 
 the bewhiskered rat, for her playfellow. 
 Through the woods back of Orchard 
 House they followed the winding path- 
 way to the Hall of Philosophy, half 
 hidden among the trees, where Bronson 
 Alcott had his Conversations, where 
 Emerson and Thoreau were often heard, 
 and the most intellectual debates of the 
 century took place. 
 
 At sunset they visited Sleepy Hollow, 
 [6] 
 
THE "REALLY, TRULY TRUE 
 
 the resting place of the Alcotts, with 
 Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne close 
 by — a goodly company, neighbors still 
 as they were for so many years when 
 they made Concord America's literary 
 shrine. 
 
 Evening came, and the two pilgrims 
 read together the Alcott journals and 
 letters. The ink was faded, the quaint, 
 old-fashioned writing was hard to deci- 
 pher, but, beginning with a letter to 
 Louisa written by Bronson Alcott when 
 his daughter was seven years old, they 
 read on until the dawn. 
 
 Only one result could be expected 
 
 from such an experience. They asked 
 
 permission to publish the letters and 
 
 such portions of the journals as would 
 [7] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 most completely reveal the rare spiritual 
 companionship existing between the 
 Alcott parents and children. And, ask- 
 ing, they were refused, because of a 
 feeling that the letters and journals were 
 intimate family records, to be read, not 
 by the many, but by the few. This 
 same sentiment withheld the dramati- 
 zation of "Little Women*' for many 
 years. 
 
 "You forget," they argued, holding 
 fast to the dimly written pages, "that 
 Bronson Alcott and Louisa Alcott are 
 a part of America's literary heritage. 
 They belong to the nation, to the world, 
 not alone to you." 
 
 This course of reasoning finally pre- 
 vailed, but not without many months of 
 [8] 
 
THE REALLY, TRULY TRUE 
 
 waiting. And thus, with the consent of 
 the Alcott heirs, the book of "Little 
 Women Letters from the House of 
 Alcott" came to be. 
 
 9] 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 I 
 
 The Alcott Boy 
 
 ONCE upon a time in the little 
 town of Wolcott, Connecticut, 
 was born a boy destined to offer 
 to the world new and beautiful thoughts. 
 He was laughed at and misunderstood ; 
 but the thoughts were truth, and they 
 have lived, although the boy grew weary 
 and old and passed on. 
 
 The boy was Amos Bronson Alcott. 
 He was a country lad, used from infancy 
 to the rugged life of the farm, with its 
 self-denial and makeshifts. The seem- 
 
 [lO] 
 
THE ALCOTT BOY 
 
 ing disadvantage, however, proved quite 
 the opposite. His close communion with 
 Nature brought him nearer to the truths 
 of Hfe. For him God ceased to be a 
 mythical object to be studied and read 
 about on Sunday ; but, as he roamed 
 the fields and climbed the hills, the lad 
 found Him in the rocks and the wood- 
 lands, and in the sparkling streams. He 
 became a reality. The boy and God 
 were friends. 
 
 Of schooling he had little. When 
 work at the farm permitted, he attended 
 the country school near his father's house. 
 *'Our copies," he told his little daughters, 
 "were set by the schoolmaster in books 
 made of a few sheets of foolscap, stitched 
 together and ruled with a leather plum- 
 
 [II] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 met. We used ink made of maple and 
 oak bark, which we manufactured our- 
 selves. With this I began keeping a 
 diary of my doings." 
 
 This was when the boy was twelve. 
 His hours at school were few, but as he 
 went about his daily tasks on the farm, 
 his thoughts grew and grew until his 
 mental stature far exceeded his physical. 
 He read as he guided the plow along 
 the furrow, sometimes unmindful of his 
 work until a sudden punch from a neg- 
 lected handle, as the plow struck a 
 stone, would bring him back to earth with 
 a thump. He sowed seeds in the moist, 
 sweet earth, but his face was turned to 
 the skies, and he knew the clouds and 
 the stars. When he gathered firewood, 
 
 [12] 
 
THE ALCOTT BOY 
 
 his eyes were keen for the soft, dainty 
 mosses, the cHnging hchens. As he 
 picked berries for the home table, he 
 never missed the whirr of a bird wing 
 or passed unnoticed the modest flowers 
 half hidden in the soil. Nature was his 
 library, and she spread out her choicest 
 treasures to this growing boy. 
 ' A love for all of God's creations char- 
 acterized him. He was fond, not only 
 of the growing things in the wood, but of 
 all life. His love for animals amounted 
 almost to a passion, one reason for his 
 being a strict vegetarian and insisting 
 upon bringing up his little family on a 
 vegetable diet. But in boyhood it was 
 not always clear whether humanity or 
 the craving for knowledge made him so 
 
 [13] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 considerate of the plodding team in the 
 field. Never was team more carefully 
 tended. Many were its hours of graz- 
 ing, when the noonday sun rode high 
 in the heavens, and the Alcott boy, 
 book in hand, curled up under the shade 
 of a gigantic elm and read until the 
 shadows began to lengthen. But these 
 lapses were only occasional, for the 
 lad was faithful to his tasks, except 
 when he yielded to the lure of the 
 printed page. 
 
 When scarcely more than a child he 
 began to keep a record of his books and 
 his reading, showing the first traces of 
 the reflective, introspective quality of 
 mind which later led him to set down 
 in letters and unpublished manuscripts 
 [14] 
 
THE ALCOTT BOY 
 
 his inmost thoughts. He cultivated the 
 same habits of thought in his children, 
 one reason, doubtless, for Louisa's ac- 
 curate and realistic descriptions of the 
 lives of the four Little Women of the 
 Alcott family. 
 
 His favorite books in boyhood, and, 
 for that matter, in manhood, were the 
 Bible and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," 
 which he read and reread and com- 
 mented upon. Years later he mentions 
 in his journal that he made it a practice 
 to read "Pilgrim's Progress" every year, 
 which is a remarkable record to the 
 modern boy and girl who find it difficult 
 to struggle through that wonderful alle- 
 gory even once. 
 
 Bronson Alcott took his chance and 
 
 [IS] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 made a stepping-stone of every difficulty. 
 Each obstacle he encountered in getting 
 an education created in him an even 
 stronger determination to gain one. The 
 modern boy has the world of books 
 opened wide to him through the library 
 and the free school. The treasures of 
 art are spread out before him in the 
 museums. He is surrounded by helps. 
 The boy of to-day is studied as an entity. 
 The boy of the last century could tell 
 quite a different story. 
 
 So the Alcott boy, passing long hours 
 in the woods, reading, thinking, getting 
 close to Nature and to God, walked as 
 one apart, seeing the invisible. While 
 still a boy, he began casting off the gar- 
 ment of a conventional creed and to 
 [i6] 
 
THE ALCOTT BOY 
 
 think for himself of God, the creation, of 
 life, unconsciously putting from him the 
 trammeling, cumbersome conventions 
 with which man has often hidden truth. 
 Out of this the man Alcott emerged 
 — a great soul. 
 
 [17] 
 
II 
 
 The Alcott Man 
 
 With Bronson Alcott the craving for 
 knowledge was scarcely stronger than the , 
 craving for adventure, so it is not surpris- 
 ing that in the first flush of young man- 
 hood he did not settle down to life on 
 the farm. He longed for the great world 
 lying beyond the hills and valleys of 
 peaceful New England. He wanted 
 experience, and experience he had. 
 
 He went South, hoping to teach school, 
 as he had original ideas on the training 
 of children. Unsuccessful in this, he 
 decided to be a peddler, naively remark- 
 ing that "honesty of purpose could dig- 
 nify any profession." 
 [i81 
 
THE ALCOTT MAN 
 
 Think of the courage of this boy, for 
 he was scarcely more than a boy, a phi- 
 losopher at heart, living in a world of 
 dreams and books, his ambitions all for 
 intellectual rather than material achieve- 
 ment, tramping the southern country- 
 side, undauntedly peddling buttons, 
 elastic, pins and needles, and supplying 
 all the small wants of the country house- 
 wife ! Often he encountered rebuffs, 
 sometimes he had a hearty welcome, for 
 the visit of the country peddler was 
 eagerly awaited by the children. At 
 times, when night came and he was far 
 from the shelter of an inn, he had to beg 
 a lodging from some planter. On one 
 such occasion, as he entered the grounds, 
 he saw a huge sign, "Beware the dog." 
 [19I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 A shout from the house also warned him, 
 and he saw dashing toward him a savage- 
 looking dog, powerful enough to have 
 torn to pieces the slender young peddler- 
 student. But his love for animals tri- 
 umphed. Alcott stretched out his hand. 
 The huge creature stopped short ; then, 
 recognizing a friend and a fearless one, 
 he bounded on, tail wagging, barking 
 joyously, snuggling his nose into the 
 young man's palm, which he licked as 
 he escorted his new-found friend to the 
 house. Animals always recognized in 
 Alcott an understanding comrade. 
 
 From most of these trips Alcott 
 brought back money to add to the 
 scanty funds at home, but on one mem- 
 orable occasion the love of finery proved 
 
 f20l 
 
THE ALCOTT MAN 
 
 Stronger than the necessity for saving, 
 and he returned to the farm penniless, 
 but dressed in the latest fashion, having 
 used his savings for a wardrobe that 
 was the wonder of the countryside. 
 That one debauch of clothes satisfied 
 him for life ; after that his tastes were 
 markedly simple. With him the "dandy 
 period " was short-lived indeed. That 
 he repented bitterly of this one excess of 
 folly is shown in his journals, where he 
 sets down minutely what to him was a 
 mistake that amounted almost to a sin. 
 As a rule, he was singularly free from 
 folly. His thoughts were too high, his 
 ideals too lofty, for him to be long con- 
 cerned with trifles such as clothes, and 
 the next expenditure mentioned in his 
 
 [21] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 journal is for the "Vicar of Wakefield" 
 and Johnson's "Rasselas." Ever im- 
 practical, one likes him the better for 
 the little human moment when the van- 
 ities of the world overcame him. 
 
 At last he secured a school, and then 
 began the realization of his ideals re- 
 garding the teaching of children. His 
 methods were original and highly suc- 
 cessful, especially with the very young. 
 He established a mental kindergarten, 
 and the fame of his teaching spread 
 abroad. Through his work as a teacher 
 he achieved his greatest happiness, for it 
 led to his meeting with the woman who 
 was destined to become his wife. 
 
 As the result of correspondence be- 
 tween himself and Mr. May of Brooklyn, 
 
 [22] 
 
THE ALCOTT MAN 
 
 Connecticut, whose attention had been 
 attracted to the work of the young 
 teacher, Alcott, then twenty-eight years 
 old, drove from the Wolcott home to 
 Brooklyn, where he met Abigail May of 
 Boston, who was visiting her brother. 
 With both it was love at first sight, a love 
 that grew into a perfect spiritual union. 
 
 It seemed almost providential that 
 Bronson Alcott should have come into 
 Abigail May's life at just this time, when 
 her heart had been touched by its first 
 great sorrow — the loss of her mother. 
 Hitherto she had been a light-hearted girl, 
 fond of dancing and of the material side 
 of life. The young philosopher, with his 
 dreams and his ideals, brought a new 
 interest into her now lonely life, and 
 [23] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 all that was spiritual in her nature re- 
 sponded as he freely discussed his plans 
 and ambitions with her. In her he 
 found both sympathy and understanding. 
 
 A year of letter-writing, a frank and 
 honest exchange of thought, brought out 
 the harmony of their natures and devel- 
 oped in both a sense of oneness, laying 
 a firm foundation for the comradeship 
 which was not broken through all the 
 years, even when the wife and mother 
 passed into the Great Beyond. 
 
 The Alcott-May courtship was ideal. 
 
 Retaining the heaven that lay about 
 
 him in his infancy, keeping his close 
 
 companionship with God and God's 
 
 great laboratory, Nature, Bronson Alcott 
 
 demanded something more than mere 
 [24 J 
 
THE ALCOTT MAN 
 
 physical attraction in choosing his wife. 
 A certain quaint circumspection charac- 
 terized their love-making. Abigail May 
 once wrote: **Mr. Alcott's views on 
 education were very attractive, and I was 
 charmed by his modesty," and long after 
 their engagement she spoke of her lover as 
 "her friend." He was, and so he contin- 
 ued to be in the highest sense of the 
 word. 
 
 So satisfying were those friendship- 
 courtship days, that apparently both 
 were loath to end them, for another 
 twelvemonth passed before the announce- 
 ment of their betrothal, and it was nearly 
 three years from the date of their first 
 meeting before their marriage in King's 
 Chapel, Boston, where the brother who 
 
 [25] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 had been the means of bringing them 
 together performed the ceremony. 
 
 As their marriage day approached, 
 there was Httle festivity and none of the 
 rush that usually precedes a modern 
 wedding. Everything was simple, quiet, 
 and sure. 
 
 This is Bronson Alcott's letter, asking 
 a friend to act as best man at his wedding. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Permit me to ask the favor of your 
 
 calling at Col. May's at 4 o'clock precisely 
 
 on Sunday afternoon next, to accompany me 
 
 and my friend Miss May to King's Chapel. 
 
 With esteem, 
 
 A. B. Alcott 
 Thursday, May 20, 
 
 112 Franklin St. 1830. 
 
 [26] 
 
THE ALCOTT MAN 
 
 So began the Alcott pilgrimage, their 
 fortune consisting of love and faith and 
 brains. In these they were rich indeed, 
 and thus closed another chapter in the 
 life of the gentle philosopher, of whom 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson once said : "Our 
 Alcott has only just missed being a 
 seraph." 
 
 [27] 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Alcott Children 
 
 FOR some months after their mar- 
 riage the Alcotts lived in Boston, 
 where the young enthusiast taught 
 a school for infants. Again his fame as 
 a teacher traveled, and he received an 
 offer from the Quakers of Philadelphia 
 to start a school there, an offer so tempt- 
 ing that the Alcotts moved to German- 
 town, Pennsylvania, where Anna and 
 Louisa were born. 
 
 Eugenics and prenatal influence were 
 not discussed then as they are to-day, 
 but in the Alcott family nearly a century 
 
 [28 1 
 
THE ALCOTT CHILDREN 
 
 ago they were being thought and lived. 
 Bronson Alcott and his wife considered 
 children an expression, not of themselves, 
 but of divinity, and as such to be ac- 
 cepted as a trust, rather than as a grati- 
 fication of their own human longing for 
 fatherhood and motherhood. They felt 
 it their parental privilege rather than 
 their duty to aid the human development 
 of the child and thus further the fulfill- 
 ment of its destiny. Each little soul 
 was humbly asked for and reverently 
 prepared for. From the moment they 
 knew their prayer had been granted, the 
 individuality and rights of that soul 
 were respected. It was considered as 
 a little guest that must be made happy 
 and comfortable, carefully cherished. 
 
 I 29] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 mentally and physically, while its fleshly 
 garment was being prepared and the little 
 personality made ready for its earthly 
 appearance. How careful they were of 
 every thought and influence, for to both 
 parents this period was the most sacred 
 and wonderful in their lives and in the 
 lives of their children. 
 
 The depth of his joy and the simplicity 
 of his faith are exquisitely expressed in 
 the lines which Bronson Alcott wrote 
 before the birth of his first child, Anna : 
 
 To An Expectant Mother 
 The long advancing hour draws nigh — the 
 
 hour 
 When life's young pulse begins its mystic 
 
 play, 
 
 And deep afFection's dreams of Form or Joy 
 [30I 
 
THE ALCOTT CHILDREN 
 
 Shall be unveiled, a bodily presence 
 
 To thy yearning heart and fond maternal 
 
 eye, 
 The primal Soul, a semblance of thine own, 
 Its high abode shall leave and dwell in day. 
 Thyself its forming Parent. A miracle, 
 
 indeed. 
 Shall nature work. Thou shalt become 
 The bearing mother of an Infant Soul — 
 Its guardian spirit to its home above. 
 But yet erewhile the lagging moments cqme 
 That layeth the living, conscious, burden 
 
 down. 
 Firm faith may rest in hope. Accordant 
 
 toils 
 Shall leave no time for fear, nor doubt, nor 
 
 gloom. 
 Love, peace, and virtue, are all born of 
 
 Pain, 
 
 [31] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 And He who rules o'er these is ever good. 
 The joyous promise is to her who trusts. 
 Who trusting, gains the vital boon she asks. 
 And meekly asking, learns to trust aright, j 
 
 Louisa, the second child, born on her 
 father's birthday, was the most intel- 
 lectual and the most resourceful of the 
 Alcott children, reflecting in her own 
 buoyant personality the happy condi- 
 tions existing before and at the time of 
 her birth, when her father had attained 
 his greatest material prosperity and was 
 also realizing his mental ambitions in 
 his little school, and her mother was 
 temporarily relieved from the cares that 
 so often weighed heavily upon her. 
 
 Shortly before the birth of Elizabeth 
 
 ,the father makes this entry in his journal : 
 l32] 
 
THE ALCOTT CHILDREN 
 
 The Advent Cometh 
 
 Daily am I in expectation of beholding with 
 the eye of sense, the spirit that now lingers 
 on the threshold of this terrestrial Hfe, and 
 only awaits the bidding of the Reaper within, 
 to usher itself into the presence of mortals. 
 It standeth at the door and waiteth for ad- 
 mission to the exterior scene of things. . . . 
 Let the time come. Two little ones in ad- 
 vance await its coming ; and greetings of 
 joy shall herald its approach. 
 
 The birth of Elizabeth is followed by 
 this entry in his journal : 
 
 At sunset this day a daughter was born 
 to us. 
 
 One of the most trying of the Alcott 
 family's experiences came after the birth 
 
 [33] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 of Elizabeth, when Bronson Alcott, again 
 in Boston, aroused a storm of protest 
 with his radical teachings and his 
 advanced interpretations of the Bible. 
 Shocked that the city where he expected 
 to find sympathy and encouragement 
 should have repudiated him, his school 
 disrupted and abject poverty his lot, 
 broken mentally and physically, he met 
 with another cruel disappointment in 
 the death of his infant son. Yet even 
 then there was no word of bitterness, 
 and no mention is made in his journal 
 of the father's grief. Indirectly it is 
 expressed in a subsequent entry announc- 
 ing the birth of the fourth daughter, 
 Abba May. 
 
 She was born under sunny skies. The 
 [34] 
 
THE ALCOTT CHILDREN 
 
 Storm had passed, and the Alcott family 
 
 had removed to Concord, where they 
 
 enjoyed many of their happiest years. 
 
 A presage of May Alcott's artistic gifts, 
 
 her queenly bearing, elegance, and charm, 
 
 all familiar to readers of "Little Women," 
 
 is found in this entry in the father's 
 
 journal : 
 
 July, 1840. 
 
 A new life has arrived to us (July 26th). 
 
 She was born with the dawn, and is a proud 
 
 little Queen, not deigning to give us the light 
 
 of her royal presence, but persists in sleeping 
 
 all the time, without notice of the broad world 
 
 or ourselves. Providence, it seems, decrees 
 
 that we shall provide selectest ministries 
 
 alone, and so sends us successive daughters 
 
 of Love to quicken the Sons of Life. We 
 
 joyfully acquiesce in the Divine behest and 
 
 135] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 are content to rear women for the future 
 world. As yet the ministry is unknown in 
 the culture of the nations, but the hour 
 draws near when love shall be felt as a chosen 
 Bride of Wisdom, and the celestial pair 
 preside over all the household of mankind. 
 
 Bronson Alcott did not feel his re- 
 sponsibility as a father alone ; he appre- 
 ciated his own debt to his children, the 
 mental and spiritual help that came 
 to him through them, an appreciation 
 that found expression in tAiis poem, en- 
 tered in his journal before the birth of 
 Elizabeth : 
 
 June, 1835 
 
 Invocation to a Child 
 
 She comes from Heaven, she dawns upon my 
 
 sight, 
 
 [36] 
 
THE ALCOTT CHILDREN 
 
 O'er earth's dark scenes to pour her holy 
 
 light ! 
 In sense and blest the Infinite to see 
 And feel the heavenly mystery — To Be. 
 
 She comes — in Nature's tenderest, fondest 
 
 name — 
 Daughter of God — 'tis she — the same — 
 
 the same 
 Mine is she too — my own — my latest child, 
 Myself, wrapt in Divinity, yet unbeguiled ! 
 
 Blest Infant ! God's and mine ! yet to me 
 
 given. 
 That I might feel anew my Being's Heaven — 
 In love and faith to urge my human way, 
 Till conscious time be lost in Immortality ! 
 
 Love thee I will ; for thou didst first love 
 
 me — 
 
 t37] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 My faith shall quicken as I dwell on thee, 
 Thy Spirit lift me from this "Grave of 
 
 Things," 
 And bear me homeward, to the King of 
 
 Kings. 
 
 38 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Alcott Baby Book 
 
 BRONSON ALCOTT wrote the first 
 Baby Book, a book which throws 
 new light on the character of the 
 lovable philosopher, showing one of New 
 England's intellectual leaders as a very 
 human and lovable man as well as "a 
 fond and foolish father." 
 
 His Baby Book, however, contains no 
 minute record of the first tooth, or 
 when the baby began to say *'Goo" 
 and *'Pitty light''; rather it is the 
 
 father's earnest effort to learn how early 
 
 [39] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 in life the infant mind begins to awaken, 
 to indicate comprehension, thought, or 
 logic. As Maeterlinck studied the bee, 
 so Alcott studied his children, and his 
 findings are a revelation, even to-day, 
 when the study of the child has become 
 a science. 
 
 Mr. Alcott considered vital the devel-. 
 opment of the child's individuality and 
 mind ; the body seemed to him of sec- 
 ondary importance, for this disre- 
 gard of the material care of his family 
 he has been severely censured ; but, not 
 recognizing in his own life the claims of 
 the body, devoting all his energies to 
 mental growth, it is not surprising that 
 he found his fatherly duty in the guid- 
 ance of his children's minds. His firm 
 l4o] 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 faith in the admonition, "Seek ye first 
 the kingdom of heaven, and all these 
 things shall be added unto you,'* was to 
 him excuse enough for considering the 
 intellect more than the body. 
 
 His practical shortcomings reaped a 
 rich and unexpected reward in the next 
 generation, for Louisa M. Alcott would 
 probably not have developed her origi- 
 nal and highly entertaining literary gift 
 without the vicissitudes caused by her 
 father's impractical nature and his sub- 
 lime faith that at all times and in all 
 emergencies the Lord would provide. 
 He did provide ; but Louisa was usually 
 the channel, and many of her stories 
 were written under the whip of stern 
 
 necessity. 
 
 [41] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Doing without has its advantages. 
 The Alcott children, never overfed, over- 
 entertained, overburdened to baby bore- 
 dom with dolls and toys and games, de- 
 veloped appreciation, observation, and 
 ingenuity. The creative faculty was 
 aroused. They found resources within 
 themselves. What a handbook Louisa 
 might have written on How to be Happy 
 though Poor ! 
 
 Mrs. Alcott's keen sense of humor, a 
 characteristic inherited by Louisa, often 
 came to her rescue and allowed her to 
 get fun out of a harassing situation. In 
 a letter to her brother, Colonel May, 
 praising her husband's intellect, she 
 laughingly comments upon his disre- 
 gard of physical necessities: *'I am not 
 [42] 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 sure that we shall not blush into obscurity 
 and contemplate into starvation." 
 
 But, to get back to the baby book, or, 
 as Mr. Alcott called it, "the psychologi- 
 cal history," it was started with a high 
 and unselfish motive ; it was developed 
 to an astonishing degree. Its purpose 
 and scope are best expressed in this 
 extract from Mr. Alcott's journal : 
 
 The history of a human mind during its 
 progressive stages of earthly experience has 
 never as yet, I believe, been attempted. 
 Faithfully compiled, from verified data, it 
 would be a treasure of wisdom to all mankind, 
 replete with light to the metaphysical and 
 ethical inquirer. Comparative philosophy 
 deduced from an observation of man during 
 all circumstances and stages of his existence 
 [43] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 is a thing yet unthought of among us. From 
 such a work the unity of Humanity might be 
 revealed. 
 
 When Anna was born, the father 
 began keeping a record of her "physical 
 and intellectual progress." When she 
 was seven weeks old, her mother wrote : 
 *'It seems as if she were conscious of 
 his observations and desirous of fur- 
 nishing him daily with an item for this 
 record." 
 
 The following excerpt from the father's 
 diary shows how well Anna succeeded 
 in her baby attempt : 
 
 I am much interested in the progress of 
 my little girl, now five months old, which I 
 have recorded from the day of her birth. 
 This record has swollen to a hundred pages. 
 
 [44] 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 I have attempted to discover, as far as this 
 could be done by external indication, the 
 successive steps of her physical, mental and 
 moral advancement. 
 
 Moral advancement of a baby five 
 months old ! 
 
 Birth of Louisa 
 
 On November 29, 1832, his thirty- 
 third birthday and also the natal day of 
 his friend, Ellery Channing, the poet, 
 Mr. Alcott chronicles an *' interesting 
 event," how interesting the father little 
 dreamed, nor how important, not alone 
 to the house of Alcott, but to the world. 
 Under the heading of Circumstances, 
 the father thus records the birth of 
 Louisa May Alcott : 
 
 [45] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 A daughter born, on the 29th, ulto., my 
 birthday, being 33 years of age. This is 
 a most interesting event. Unless those ties 
 which connect it with others are formed, the 
 wants of the soul become morbid and all its 
 fresh and primal affections become dim and 
 perverted, . . . Few can be happy shut 
 out of the nursery of the soul. 
 
 While the New England philosopher 
 was studying the development of his little 
 daughters and deducing therefrom facts 
 for his psychological history, these same 
 little daughters were developing him, for, 
 as the child nature unfolded, the father's 
 understanding of childhood expanded. 
 
 Thus the baby book grew : 
 
 The influence of children I regard as 
 important to my own improvement and 
 
 [46] 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 happiness. It is also necessary to the 
 prosecution of my studies. Dwelling in the 
 primal regions which I wish to explore, they 
 are the purest manifestations of its phe- 
 nomena, and the only subjects from which 
 humanity is to be interpreted in its purity. 
 
 When Anna was three years old and 
 Louisa eighteen months, the father writes 
 in his journal : 
 
 I passed some time with the children, 
 fitting up their playthings, conversing with 
 them and learning as far as I could through 
 the subtle meaning of looks, accents and 
 gestures, their thoughts and feelings. The 
 avenues to the spirit are all open, but how 
 dim are our perceptions, how cold our 
 sympathies, to appreciate the pure and 
 bright things which glitter in the arena of 
 [47] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 the young mind ! How little of this fairy 
 land do we know — we, whose early asso- 
 ciations have all been swept from the heart — 
 over whose spirits have passed the cold winds, 
 the pelting storms, withering and destroying 
 the heart's young verdure ! What is there 
 to unite us with the spirit of a child ? What 
 have we in common with its joyous yearning 
 for the beautiful, its trust in human sayings, 
 its deep love for those on wh.om it relies 
 for attention and support, its vivid picturing 
 of ideal life, its simplicity, its freedom from 
 prejudice and false sentiment ? Where are 
 these to be seen in our dim nature ? 
 
 He might have answered the question 
 by looking within himself. Child com- 
 panionship kept alive the spirit of the 
 
 Alcott boy, which constantly shone 
 
 [48] 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 through the man's philosophy. As the 
 boy saw in every rock and tree and 
 flower an expression of the Infinite, is it 
 any wonder that the man should have 
 recognized God's higher manifestation 
 in the child, and should have written 
 in his journal these lines, which are the 
 very glorification of fatherhood and re- 
 veal the sacredness with which he looked 
 upon his stewardship ? 
 
 He] who deals with the child deals — did 
 he know it — with the Infinite, Within the 
 young spirit committed to his care are in- 
 finite capacities to be filled, infinite energies 
 to be developed, and on him devolves the 
 amazing responsibility — sacred, personal, 
 all his own — of filling these capacities, 
 unfolding these energies, from the stores and 
 l49l 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 life of his own spirit. This is his office as a 
 parent. But how can he who knows nothing 
 of the Infinite within himself call it forth and 
 direct its forces in others ? 
 
 From the first, Louisa must have 
 shown strong individuality and unusual 
 tendencies, for Mr. Alcott's notes on 
 Louisa are entitled ''Observations on the 
 Vital Phenomena of My Second Child." 
 A more vital, lovable, contradictory 
 specimen of childhood cannot be imagined. 
 Blessed with her father's brilliancy of 
 mind, her mother's quick wit and love of 
 fun, Louisa furnished a problem for end- 
 less study. She was less than two years 
 old when her individuality had so asserted 
 itself that her father found himself puz- 
 zled and admitted that elements were 
 [50] 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 finding their way into his observations of 
 whose origin he could give no account. 
 "My analysis, however accurate and 
 elaborate, was still imperfect, and I 
 was left in doubt. I had made no pro- 
 vision for the admission of innate influ- 
 ences from the mind itself." 
 
 Here is a quaint little record of the 
 Alcott babies' school days, when Anna 
 was four years old and Louisa a little 
 more than two : 
 
 At school Anna reads, marks and listens 
 to conversations and stories. Louisa works 
 with her in all except the reading and mark- 
 ing. They have a playroom, where they 
 enjoy their own amusements, uninterrupted 
 by the presence of adults — often a bar to 
 the genuine happiness of childhood. Anna 
 [51] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 reads simple sentences from Leffanoch's 
 Primer, writes intelligibly on tablets and 
 slates, and is improving in work and man- 
 ners. 
 
 (This of a baby of four.) 
 
 A spiritual and moral inventory of 
 the progress of Anna and Louisa is set 
 down by the father when his daughters 
 had reached the dignified ages of six 
 and four : 
 
 The children have improved under my 
 
 training. Anna, who has been with me more 
 
 of the time than Louisa, has been greatly 
 
 benefited. She is happier, more capable 
 
 of self control, more docile and obeys from 
 
 love and faith. She has fine elements for 
 
 excellence, moral and intellectual. If she 
 
 does not evince a pure and exalted character, 
 [52] 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 it will be our failure, not hers, in the improve- 
 ment of her natural endowments. 
 
 Louisa is yet too young for the formation 
 of just views of her character. She manifests 
 uncommon activity and force of mind at 
 present, and is much in advance of her sister 
 at the same age ; example has done much to 
 call forth her nature. She is more active 
 and practical than Anna. Anna is ideal, 
 sentimental. Louisa is practical, energetic. 
 The first imagines much more than she can 
 realize ; the second, by force of will and 
 practical talent, reahzes all that she conceives 
 — but conceives less; understanding, rather 
 than imagination — the gift of her sister — 
 seems to be her prominent faculty. She finds 
 no difficulty in developing ways and means to 
 obtain her purpose ; while her sister, aiming 
 at much, imagining ideal forms of good, and 
 [53] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 shaping them out so vividly in her mind 
 that they become actual enjoyments, fails, 
 when she attempts to realize them in nature 
 — she has been dwelling on the higher and 
 more speculative relations of things. 
 
 Both represent interesting forms of charac- 
 ter, both have wide and useful spheres of 
 action indicated in their conformation and will 
 doubtless if continued to us, be real blessings. 
 
 That they did prove real blessings the 
 history of the Alcott family has shown. 
 
 How many fathers ever acknowledge 
 their spiritual debt to the gift of father- 
 hood as has Bronson Alcott : 
 
 I know not how much more spiritual I 
 am from the parental relation (he writes), 
 how much I have been indebted to them 
 for the light that hath dawned upon my own 
 
 [54] 
 
A. Bronson Alcott at thk Age of 53. 
 
 From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth. 
 
 Page 54. 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 mind from the radiance of their simple 
 spirits. Certain it is that the more I asso- 
 ciate with them in the simple ways they 
 love, the more do I seem to revere. Verily 
 had I not been called to associate with chil- 
 dren, had I not devoted myself to the study 
 of human nature in its period of infancy and 
 childhood, I should never have found the 
 tranquil repose, the steady faith, the vivid 
 hope that now sheds a glory and a dignity 
 around the humble path of my life. Child- 
 hood hath saved me. 
 
 Out of his theories, his studies, and 
 meditations came a sublime ambition, a 
 desire to become a laborer in the "Field 
 of the Soul." 
 
 Infancy I shall invest with a glory — a 
 spirituality which the disciples of Jesus, 
 (551 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 deeply as they entered into His spirit and 
 caught the Hfe of His mind, have failed to 
 bring forth in their records of His sayings and 
 life. I shall redeem infancy and childhood, 
 and, if a Saviour of Adults was given in the 
 person of Jesus, let me, without impiety or 
 arrogance, regard myself as the Children's 
 Saviour. Divine are both missions. Both 
 seek out and endeavor to redeem the Infinite 
 in man, which, by reason of the clogs of 
 sense and custom, is in perpetual danger of 
 being lost. The chief obstacle in the way 
 of human regeneration is the want of a due 
 appreciation of human nature, and partic- 
 ularly of the nature of children. 
 
 Home and its influence upon children 
 meant much to Mr. Alcott, and in all 
 
 his writing the nearest approach to a 
 
 [56I 
 
THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 
 
 protest against the poverty he was called 
 upon to endure was when, for a time, he 
 was obliged to give up that home. Deep 
 is the pathos that lies between the lines 
 of this entry in his journal : 
 
 Home for Children 
 I deem it very important to the well being 
 of my children to insure them a home. At 
 least their means of improvement are limited, 
 their pleasures are abridged, the domestic 
 relations, so vital to virtue — to all that 
 lives in the heart and imagination, are 
 robbed of their essential glory, and the effect 
 is felt throughout the character in after life. 
 I feel that my duty as a father cannot be 
 fully carried out when I am thus restricted. 
 Whether we can yet improve this condition 
 remains to be determined. 
 l57] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 The home was reestablished — and 
 such a home ! An influence felt through- 
 out the world, the inspiration of every 
 book Louisa Alcott wrote. 
 
 58 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Letters and Conversations with 
 Children 
 
 HAPPINESS reigned in the Alcott 
 home, and poverty seldom brought 
 with it a shadow. The girls had 
 toys and a variety of them, — rag dolls, 
 kittens, gingerbread men, and barnyard 
 animals (the latter skillfully cut out of 
 cake dough by the mother, who had a 
 genius for inventing surprises). As they 
 grew older, they delighted in private 
 theatricals. Some of their plays, written 
 by Anna and Louisa, have been published 
 under the title of "Comic Tragedies.'* 
 
 They are thrillingly melodramatic, 
 
 [59] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 thickly sprinkled with villains and 
 heroes, witches and ruffians, lovely 
 ladies in distress, gallant knights to the 
 rescue, evil spirits and good fairies, 
 gnomes and giants. All are direfuUy 
 tragic and splendidly spectacular. 
 Louisa as a child showed the dramatic 
 quality which later found artistic 
 expression in her stories. On a rainy 
 afternoon the children were never at a 
 loss for entertainment. They "acted" 
 in the attic or played dolls in their own 
 playroom, and such dolls ! Old Joanna, 
 of whom Louisa has drawn a lifelike pic- 
 ture in "Little Women," is to-day in 
 existence, battered, scarred, but none the 
 less precious, one foot carefully bandaged, 
 
 after the army-nurse method. 
 l6o] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 Poverty was made interesting. At 
 Christmas a tree was hung with apples, 
 nuts, and popped corn, and small trifles 
 made by the children were fastened to 
 the branches. Father and mother made 
 much of the spirit of the Christ birthday, 
 which was celebrated in simple, whole- 
 some fashion, in vivid contrast to the 
 modern Christmas festival. 
 
 The Alcott letters and journals show 
 
 tremendous intellectual activity on the 
 
 part of the small atoms of humanity who 
 
 came to grace the Alcott home. Anna 
 
 and her father held moral and intellectual 
 
 discussions when Anna was four. Louisa 
 
 was writing a daily journal before she 
 
 could more than print. As soon as a 
 
 child could read, family reproofs were 
 [6il 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 administered by notes from father and 
 mother to the erring one, not only point- 
 ing out the fault, but how to correct it. 
 The father encouraged his daughters 
 to study themselves and to write down 
 their thoughts. Their journals, in con- 
 sequence, reflect the characteristics of 
 each one and are storehouses of informa- 
 tion. Louisa, poor little soul, in her 
 happy, hoydenish childhood, found time 
 one day in a fit of mentality to set down 
 in black and white her chief faults. One 
 of her most serious, according to the self- 
 imposed confession, was "love of cats," 
 a sin which easily beset her all her days, 
 for she inherited her father's love of ani- 
 mals and of children. 
 
 Widely varied in character and tem- 
 
 [62] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 perament were the four Alcott girls. 
 Anna, the first, reflected the beauty, the 
 happiness, and the romance of the Al- 
 cotts' first year of married life. Louisa, 
 born some eighteen months later, when 
 father and mother had grown even closer 
 together through the new bond formed 
 by the love of their little daughter, em- 
 bodied a deeper, stronger, surer charac- 
 ter. She was decisive, with a deter- 
 mination and surety of self and bril- 
 liancy of mind that reflected the best 
 in both parents. Elizabeth, the third 
 child, was, in some respects, the most 
 beautiful character of all. About her, 
 from the hour of her conception, seemed 
 to hover a spiritual, protecting love. 
 
 Seemingly from earliest infancy she stood 
 
 [63] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 on the borderland of the spiritual world, 
 in flesh all too fragile to retain the spirit 
 which remembered and longed, notwith- 
 standing the love with which she was 
 surrounded, to return to the mystical 
 beauty from which she had come. A 
 child of dreams and fancies, loving all 
 that was harmonious, she entered this 
 life at twilight, she left it at the dawn, 
 a coming and going typical of this dream 
 child, who was lent for a little time to 
 make the world more glad. 
 
 The birth of Amy is also symbolical, 
 the one sunny-haired, sunny-hearted girl 
 of the family, who came with the rising 
 of the sun. She seemed made for love, 
 sunshine, and happiness, and had them 
 
 all, but she was brave to face hardships 
 [64] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 and equally ready to accept comfort and 
 luxury. A queen, the father called her 
 the morning of her birth, and so they 
 brought her up, the Little Snow Queen. 
 The wise, fostering love of the father, 
 the helpful, understanding watchfulness 
 of the mother, are reflected in their 
 letters to their children. Time was not 
 considered wasted that was devoted to 
 these letters of gentle admonition and 
 kindly counsel. There was no discussion 
 of faults or mistakes in the Alcott house- 
 hold ; reproofs remained little secrets 
 between father and daughter, or mother 
 and daughter, and the effect of this wise 
 and constant watchfulness grows more 
 apparent as the children advance from 
 
 childhood to girlhood and on to woman- 
 [65] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 hood. They were taught to know them- 
 selves. They were taught, too, the rela- 
 tion of the Christ child with their own 
 childhood, beautifully expressed in some 
 of the letters from Bronson Alcott to his 
 eldest daughter. 
 
 It was the father's habit to write each 
 child on her birthday anniversary and 
 at Christmas. Anna was six years old 
 when he gave her this beautiful descrip- 
 tion of the coming of the Christ : 
 
 For Anna 
 1837 
 To my Daughter Anna. 
 
 A longer time ago than you can under- 
 stand, a beautiful Babe was born. Angels 
 sang at his birth. And stars shone brightly. 
 
 Shepherds watched their flocks by their 
 
 [66] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 light. The Babe was laid in his Manger- 
 cradle. And harmless oxen fed by his side. 
 There was no room for him nor his mother in 
 the Inn, as she journeyed from her own home. 
 This Babe was born at this time of the 
 year. His name was Jesus. And he is 
 also called Christ. This is his birth night. 
 And we call it Christ-mas, after him. 
 
 I write you this little note as a Christmas 
 Gift, and hope my Httle girl will remember the 
 birth night of Jesus. Think how beautiful he 
 was, and try to shine in lovely actions as he 
 did. God never had a child that pleased him 
 so well. Be Hke a kind sister of his, and so 
 please your Father, who loves you very much. 
 Christmas Eve, 
 
 December 24th, 1837. 
 From your 
 
 Father. 
 [67] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Again on Christmas Eve, two years 
 later, he describes to his little daughter 
 of eight years her own coming into the 
 world of material things. 
 
 The belief in prenatal influence is 
 strongly indicated, for the father tells 
 his little girl that they thought just how 
 she would look and pictures to her the 
 joy and the love with which she was sur- 
 rounded before her coming into the land 
 of the material and first seeing with her 
 baby eyes the light of a world day. 
 
 For Anna 
 1839 
 
 You were once pleased, my daughter, with 
 
 a little note which I wrote you on Christmas 
 [68] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 Eve, concerning the birth of Jesus. I am 
 now going to write a few words about your 
 own Birth. Mother and I had no child. 
 We wanted one — a Httle girl just like you ; 
 and we thought how you would look, and 
 waited a good while for you to come, so 
 that we might see you and have you for our 
 own. At last you came. We felt so happy 
 that joy stood in our eyes. You looked 
 just as we wanted to have you. You were 
 draped in a pretty little white frock, and 
 father took you in his arms every day, and 
 we loved you very much. Your large 
 bright eyes looked lovingly into ours, and 
 you soon learned to love and know us. When 
 you were a few weeks old, you smiled 
 on us. We lived then in Germantown. 
 It is now more than eight years since this 
 
 happened, but I sometimes see the same 
 I69] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 look and the same smile on your face, and 
 
 feel that my daughter is yet good and pure. 
 
 O keep it there, my daughter, and never lose 
 
 it. 
 
 Your Father, 
 
 Christmas Eve, 
 
 Beach Street, 
 
 Dec. 24, 1839. 
 
 On her birthday some three months 
 
 later, he continues the thought in this 
 
 exquisite letter : 
 
 March 16, 1840. 
 
 My dear Daughter, 
 
 With this morning's dawn opens a 
 
 new year of your Life on Earth. Nine years 
 
 ago you were sent, a sweet Babe into this 
 
 world, a joy and hope to your father and 
 
 mother. After a while, through many smiles 
 [70] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 and some few tears, you learned to lisp the 
 names of father and mother, and to make 
 them feel once more how near and dear 
 you were to their hearts whenever you named 
 their names. Now you are a still dearer 
 object of Love and hope to them as your love 
 buds and blossoms under their eye. They 
 watch this flower as it grows in the Garden 
 of Life, and scents the air with its fragrance, 
 and delights the eye by its colours. Soon 
 they will look not for Beauty and fragrance 
 alone, but for the ripening and ripe fruit. 
 May it be the Spirit of Goodness ; may its 
 leaves never wither, its flowers never fade; 
 its fragrance never cease ; but may it flourish 
 in perpetual youth and beauty, and be trans- 
 planted in its time, into the Garden of God, 
 whose plants are ever green, ever fresh, and 
 bloom alway, the amaranth of Heaven, the 
 [71] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 pride and joy of angels. Thus writes your 
 
 Father to you on this your birth morn. 
 
 Monday, i6 March, 1840. 
 
 Beach Street, 
 
 Boston 
 For 
 
 Anna, 
 
 in the Garden of Life. 
 
 This letter and his allusion to "your 
 life on earth" show plainly his belief 
 in life eternal, for Bronson Alcott con- 
 sidered earthly existence merely a period 
 in the evolution of the soul. 
 
 On Christmas Eve, 1840; when Anna 
 was nearly ten, Louisa just past her 
 eighth birthday. May, the golden-haired 
 baby of the Alcott household, and Eliza- 
 beth the little shadow child of four, he 
 [72] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 wrote Christmas letters to his daughters, 
 which show his appreciation of their 
 special needs, and his respect for their 
 individualities. The letter to Elizabeth 
 is missing ; to Anna he wrote : 
 
 For Anna 
 1840 
 
 BEAUTY or DUTY 
 
 which 
 
 loves Anna best ? 
 
 a 
 
 Question 
 
 from her 
 
 FATHER 
 
 Christmas Eve 
 Dec. 1840 
 Concordia. 
 
 [73] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 For Louisa, the father's message was 
 this: 
 
 For Louisa 
 1840 
 
 Louisa loves — 
 
 What ? 
 (Softly) 
 
 FUN 
 
 Have some then, 
 
 Father 
 
 says. 
 
 Christmas Eve, Dec. 1840 
 
 Concordia. 
 
 74 1 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 For the baby of the hojsehold, the 
 father's love message took poetic tuin:: 
 
 For Abba 
 1840 
 
 For Abba 
 Babe fair, 
 Pretty hair, 
 Bright eye. 
 Deep sigh. 
 Sweet Hp, 
 Feet slip. 
 Handsome hand, 
 Stout grand, 
 Happy smile. 
 Time beguile, 
 All I ween, 
 Concordia's Queen. 
 [751 
 
LETTERS FROM I HE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Almost ^vithout the dates, one could 
 keep track of the development of the 
 Alcott girls through their father's letters. 
 This one demonstrates his gift of teach- 
 ing by the use of suggestion : 
 For Anna 
 1842 
 A Father's Gift 
 to his 
 Daughter 
 on her 
 Eleventh Birthday. 
 Concordia 
 1 6th March 
 1842 
 
 My dear daughter, 
 
 This is your eleventh birthday, and 
 
 as I have heretofore addressed a few words 
 [76I 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 to you on these interesting occasions, I 
 will not depart from my former custom 
 now. 
 
 And my daughter, what shall I say to you ? 
 Shall I say something to please or to instruct 
 you — to flatter or benefit you ? I know 
 you dislike being pleased unless the pleasure 
 make you better, and you dislike all flattery. 
 And you know too, that your father never 
 gave you a word of flattery in his life. So 
 there remains for you the true and purest 
 pleasure of being instructed and benefited 
 by words of love and the deepest regard 
 for your improvement in all that shall 
 make you more happy in yourself and 
 beautiful to others. And so I shall speak 
 plainly to you of yourself, and of my desire 
 for your improvement in several important 
 things. 
 
 (771 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 First — Your Manners. Try to be more 
 gentle. You like gentle people and every- 
 one is more agreeable as he cultivates this 
 habit. None can be agreeable who are desti- 
 tute of it and how shall you become more 
 gentle ? Only by governing your passions, 
 and cherishing your love to everyone who is 
 near you. Love is gentle : Hate is violent. 
 Love is well-mannered ; Selfishness is rude, 
 vulgar. Love gives sweet tone to the voice, 
 and makes the countenance lovely. Love 
 then, and grow fair and agreeable. 
 
 Second : Be Patient. This is one of the 
 
 most difficult things to everyone, old or 
 
 young. But it is also one of the greatest 
 
 things. And this comes of Love too. Love 
 
 is Patient : it bears ; it suflpers long ; it is 
 
 kind; it is beautiful; it makes us like 
 
 angels. Patience is, indeed, angelic; it is 
 l78] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 the Gate that opens into the House of Happi- 
 ness. Open it, my daughter, and enter in 
 and take all your sisters in with you. 
 
 Third : Be Resolute. Shake ofF all Slug- 
 gishness, and follow your Confidence as 
 fast as your feelings, your thoughts, your 
 eye, your hand, your foot, will carry you. 
 Hate all excuses : almost always, these are 
 lies. Be quick in your obedience : delay 
 is a laggard, who never gets up with himself, 
 and loses the company of confidence always. 
 Resolution is the ladder to Happiness. 
 Resolve and be a wise and happy girl. 
 
 Fourth : Be Diligent. Put your heart into 
 all you do : and fix your thoughts on your 
 doings. Halfness is almost as bad as nothing : 
 be whole then in all you do and say. 
 
 But I am saying a great deal and will stop 
 now with the hope of meeting you on the 
 l79] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 i6th March, 1843 (the good God sparing us 
 till then) a gentler, a meeker, more de- 
 termined and obligent girl. 
 
 Your friend 
 and 
 
 Father 
 
 Concordia 
 
 16 March 
 1842 
 For 
 
 Anna Bronson Alcott. 
 
 Such a gift to an eleven-year-old girl 
 on her birthday ! One would expect 
 not kindly counsel, but a toy, a picture 
 book, something pretty for her body, 
 not much for her mind. The spiritual- 
 ity and the wisdom of the poet-phi- 
 [80I 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 losopher are shown in this letter with its 
 "excuses, almost always lies," and "de- 
 lay is a laggard." 
 
 When Louisa was seven years old, her 
 mother was ill, and the child was sent 
 away from home for a time. To his little 
 absent daughter the father sends this let- 
 ter, printed so that she might read it for 
 herself : 
 
 For Louisa. 
 
 1839 
 
 My dear Little Girl. 
 
 Father hopes you are well and happy. 
 
 Mother will soon be well enough we hope 
 
 for you to come home. You want to see us 
 
 all I know. And we want to see you very 
 
 much. Be a good girl and try to do as they 
 I81I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 tell you. You shall see us all in a few 
 days. 
 
 You were never away from home so long 
 before. It has given you some new feelings. 
 
 I have printed this note. I hope you can 
 read it all yourself. 
 
 Good Bye 
 
 From Father. 
 Saturday 
 
 1 1 o'clock in the School Room. 
 1839 
 
 On her seventh birthday he writes 
 her one of the most wonderful letters 
 of the many that have been preserved 
 in the volumes of the Alcott manuscripts : 
 
 [82] 
 
To 
 
 Jj C iris A ^aQT Alcctt 
 
You. ajre Seireii ye^rs 
 elcl tfi dti^y , <an.c7 your" x^M er i5 ^erty 
 
 tn-ijti ^s ^ 3t»ice y^K Jiave Lived, lox V- 
 Jjody ^ aheict mitigj g^tfi'n^ ^ii ^r^K^iX 
 
 ■ko iLinK ,7i.</tv to i evolve , 1v«j>v "to T-tfve 
 a,ti.X li#w +0 oljcy, ILovc reel/ y^««'*' 
 
OhC ehc ^wTieiXYf*^ ^^ "'^ yni.-n.aL its 
 Coilln\^,^^^Xn^ ents . It/ ask^ ytru: dJ- 
 wa-yr to BJ.' G^OOl}^ an^ L tja^rs 
 
 i6 CTTneUy. How XirActl^- Ifc 1>ea,TX 
 vviM*' y</u" alC tKc v/Rttc- ! Uotv — 
 
 lu Y^i^t-c UK ART wKc*v Y<,»c_ 
 t» Obey ■i.^. IrftfW I.ert'jbte "i-t? 
 
^■arniihmenTs , It. is CrUX) t-ryi^g 
 tit ytrccf SOJTL "to Jiecp yTtcc -dXw^ys 
 
 jLfivc Tieg-ttL , -my ole-a.y ala.u^'A 
 'tcv, axtotKe-y ye8Li<* tliis j^xeTTii'tt ^. 
 
 Sis Vers ,,in^itk yrunp ZitiX e -£TLC:nM, 
 s7\.aAnr fiicx^- ZaVC on. irhtf wiO' Bittk ~ 
 
 Ofett it d,n^ ta/ce wAftt tV iVl -^t . 
 SjlZ fAe 'best virjfAes of 
 
 BcsLcK Stf&et, 
 
 jT" 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 For Louisa 
 
 1839 
 
 My Daughter, 
 
 You are Seven years old to-day and 
 your Father is forty. You have learned a 
 great many things, since you have lived in a 
 Body, about things going on around you and 
 within you. You know how to think, how 
 to resolve, how to love, and how to obey. 
 You feel your Conscience, and have no real 
 pleasure unless you obey it. You cannot love 
 yourself, or anyone else, when you do not 
 mind its commandments. It asks you always 
 to BE GOOD, and bears, O how gently! how 
 patiently ! with all endeavors to hate, and 
 treat it cruelly. How kindly it bears with 
 you all the while. How sweetly it whispers 
 
 Happiness in your HEART when you Obey 
 
 [83] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 its soft words. How it smiles upon you, and 
 
 makes you Glad when you Resolve to Obey it ! 
 
 How terrible its punishments. It is GOD 
 
 trying in your soul to keep you always Good. 
 
 You begin, my dear daughter, another year 
 
 this morning. Your Father, your Mother, 
 
 and Sisters, with your little friends, show 
 
 their love on this your Birthday, by giving 
 
 you this BOX. Open it, and take what is 
 
 in it, and the best wishes of 
 
 Your Father. 
 Beach Street, 
 
 Friday morning, Nov. 29, 1839. 
 
 His explanation to a seven-year-old 
 girl that conscience is *'God in your 
 soul," and the lines, "since you have lived 
 in a body," are eloquent manifestations 
 of his belief. It is not surprising that, 
 given such thoughts at seven, Louisa 
 [84] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 at ten or eleven wrote that she was sure 
 in some previous life she must have been 
 a horse, — she loved so to run. A month 
 before May Alcott was born, little 
 Louisa, then eight, again away from home, 
 received this letter from her father: 
 
 Cottage, Sunday June 21st, 
 1840. 
 
 We all miss the noisy little girl who used 
 to make house and garden, barn and field, 
 ring with her footsteps, and even the hens 
 and chickens seem to miss her too. Right 
 glad would father and mother, Anna and 
 EUzabeth, and all the Httle mates at 
 School, and Miss Russell, the House Play- 
 room, Dolls, Hoop, Garden, Flowers, Fields, 
 Woods and Brooks, all be to see and answer 
 the voice and footsteps, the eye and hand of 
 [85I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 their little companion. But yet all make 
 themselves happy and beautiful without her; 
 all seem to say, " Be Good, little Miss, while 
 away from us, and when we meet again we 
 shall love and please one another all the more ; 
 we find how much we love now we are 
 separated." 
 
 I wished you here very much on the morn- 
 ing when the Hen left her nest and came 
 proudly down with six little chickens, every- 
 one knowing how to walk, fly, eat and drink 
 almost as well as its own mother ; to-day 
 (Sunday) they all came to see the house and 
 took their breakfast from their nice little 
 feeding trough ; you would have enjoyed the 
 sight very much. But this and many other 
 pleasures all wait for you when you return. 
 Be good, kind, gentle, while you are away, 
 
 step lightly, and speak soft about the house; 
 [86] 
 
5S 
 
 7)r 
 
 /» BoJi&2i 
 
 Tdthev 
 
 r.-JT 
 
^^^■n^^>f, Xh^ 
 
 
 f/ic- /i^tvy 
 I'lrl -wliif iticd to Tn<dil<e Jiou^e J/itl 
 ^arcX C71 ^ hatji. i^ncH -Cield rcix^ uivTh her 
 'i'ooX^lc-os , and eren ihc hem • artd chick- 
 ens seem io m\^f Ker -ice . J(^trJii ^iJi 
 ivoicloL MRiher and Aiother , Ar>^iL ^nd. 
 Elt\ahet/i , dtxH. dl( the little ^mi-^s at- 
 
 T^lau.f^tk ffn , X>t>X(s , 71 o OP , Cn. Tden. ,jituf 
 
 t-rs, II el is, iVbofid SLTtH J^-rta/^r^ aU 
 Ttc 7* See a-Ttii S-HSwe^r ^c vft^Ctr 
 M^id. :PtiUtepi ,fhe e^e i.nd hnnd. fi^ 
 fkcinr iitilc ctm-p-o.'Yvxf'H . ^-ni ^ei aU 
 tr^g^ke ^emn selves nSiypxj m.n^ ^^d-U/^. 
 
-y^riikiUir her ; all scou h say- . 3e. 
 Onocl XiH(e JJ^t^i n/Zit^e ai*/4i/ rra/n 
 
 ik'kli love *9i,'nA. ylif&se ene ^'7\othcy 
 all tj\.e TnoTe ; tcC' xt-M.<il Ilowt mKcX 
 ^vc l»v€ -itdw- we ure Se|o'B.^ra'tetfl . 
 
 X -v*7fA(?<^ y<;zc Ac-Tit Uertj much 
 
 ^cr 7t.€^ an A. c&me, ^-rcucily ^o^tk 
 -*«ttA s('x /tVf?e cTiickcni ^ ^*^erj, <»yie 
 
 mttneT : "A-^ai; /Stt'Yui'iu \ Hi cm 
 All c^me•tc ike A*Mte, ^nd i^Ai 
 n.u'T i^eal<faii i^o^yy ikci-y -nice 
 2<flCc -(eediTM^ ii^fUf^ ; Vff^ -U'ivilA 
 
 j'rTk^f 
 
^oocl , lfui<^ , ^antlc , vt^iCt w-ou^ ITS' 
 awrfliy ,^^0^ ttjlit/w a-n<^ ?pc«.X S«^^ 
 
 auiei. as we 2 1 as -viricr ^oBer Fd.lhc^^ 
 Eli'iahoth sdyf often , Ok 2 
 
 Voter 
 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 Grandpa loves quiet, as well as your sober 
 father and other grown people. 
 
 Elizabeth says often, "Oh I wish I could see 
 Louisa, when will she come home, Mother ? " 
 And another feels so too ; who is it ? 
 
 Your 
 
 Father. 
 I forgot to write how much Kit missed you. 
 
 On her eighth birthday, her father 
 writes : 
 
 For Louisa 
 1840 
 Two Passions strong divide our Life, 
 Meek gentle Love, or boisterous Strife. 
 Love — Music Anger — Arrow 
 
 Concord Discord 
 
 From her Father 
 On her eighth birthday Nov. 29th. 
 I87] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 At ten, her birthday greeting from her 
 
 father is this : 
 
 For Louisa 
 
 1842 
 My daughter, 
 
 This is your birthday : you are ten 
 years of age to-day. I sought amidst my 
 papers for some pretty picture to place at 
 the top of this note, but I did not find any- 
 thing that seemed at all expressive of my 
 interest in your well-being, or well-doing, 
 and so this note comes to you without any 
 such emblem. Let me say, my honest little 
 girl, that I have had you often in my mind 
 during my separation from you and your 
 devoted mother, and well-meaning sisters, 
 while on the sea or the land, and now that 
 I have returned to be with you and them 
 
 again, meeting you daily at fireside, at 
 [88] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 table, at study, and in your walk, and amuse- 
 ments, in conversation and in silence, being 
 daily with you, I would have you feel my 
 presence and be the happier, and better that 
 I am here. I want, most of all things, to 
 be a kindly influence on you, helping you 
 to guide and govern your heart, keeping it 
 in a state of sweet and loving peacefulness, 
 so that you may feel how good and kind is 
 that Love which lives always in our breasts, 
 and which we may always feel, if we will keep 
 the passions all in stillness and give up our- 
 selves entirely to its soft desires. I live, 
 my dear daughter, to be good and to do good 
 to all, and especially to you and your mother 
 and sisters. Will you not let me do you all 
 the good that I would .? And do you not 
 know that I can do you little or none, unless 
 you give me your affections, incline your 
 [89] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 ears, and earnestly desire to become daily 
 better and wiser, more kind, gentle, loving, 
 diligent, heedful, serene. The good Spirit 
 comes into the Breast of the meek and loveful 
 to abide long ; anger, discontent, impatience, 
 evil appetites, greedy wants, complainings, 
 ill-speakings, idlenesses, heedlessness, rude 
 behaviour and all such, these drive it away, 
 or grieve it so that it leaves the poor mis- 
 guided soul to live in its own obstinate, 
 perverse, proud discomfort, which is the 
 very Pain of Sin, and is in the Bible called 
 the worm that never dies, the gnawing worm, 
 the sting of conscience : while the pleasures 
 of love and goodness are beyond all descrip- 
 tion — a peacefulness that passes all under- 
 standing. I pray that my daughter may 
 know much of the last, and little of the first 
 
 of these feelings. I shall try every day to 
 [90] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 help her to the knowledge and love of this 
 good Spirit. I shall be with her, and as she 
 and her sisters come more and more into 
 the presence of this Spirit, shall we become 
 a family more closely united in loves that 
 can never sunder us from each other. 
 This your 
 
 Father 
 in Hope and Love 
 on your 
 Birthday 
 Concordia, 
 Nov. 29, 1842. 
 
 To little Elizabeth the letters were 
 few. The child was so constantly the 
 companion of father and mother, that by 
 speech rather than written word, their 
 messages were given. But on her fifth 
 [91] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 birthday, her father carefully printed 
 
 this letter : 
 
 For Elizabeth 
 
 1840 
 
 I I I I I Years 
 one two three four five 
 
 BIRTH-DAY 
 
 in the 
 
 COTTAGE 
 
 My very dear Httle girl, 
 
 You make me very happy every time 
 I look at your smiling pleasant face — and 
 you make me very sorry every time I see 
 your face look cross and unpleasant. You 
 are now five years old. You can keep your 
 little face pleasant all the time, if you will 
 try, and be happy yourself, and make every- 
 body else happy too. Father wants to have 
 
 his little girl happy all the time. He hopes 
 I92] 
 
jor 
 
 /i4o 
 
"TW* 
 
 
 #»« tM HmC iiiir ittt 
 
 9r 
 
 in Hey 
 
 t/fly very e/ea r liiile ^irl , 
 
 loll ma.7ce ?7Le 
 very nAppy ei^ery ^tme 2. loo'k: ax 
 you-T smiling pledsa,7it zdce _ a.7t^ 
 ycjc Tne-^ey ?ne very s^orry eireTy 
 If me 2 sec i/ou-r Ta.ce look ere ff dn^ 
 1f7i2jCeci^3.n-C. jCo^ a^<^ nej*r 2nre yea-ts 
 01 i^ jT^ic can 7<eep ysTcr Jiilte ~fd^ec 
 
jieii<;a.7tt nU the i.^mc , if y,jt v^'dlisty^ 
 ATiR h(- nappy ijfKrSelf ^ avR 7na.ke eire-Tu 
 lofy ehe laippy ioo. Iai?ipr wci-n-tc -fa 
 liave jin Uitlc ^nrl y,^^^^ ^a tkc-tt^e. 
 l[t ?,^e{ J,er> liHlc J^rienJr AnR Tcer' 
 -p-pest-nli 0.71(1 /y7aijc i^id -y^uk e her 
 Jidifpy ifi-^ay : and ihn htlte note^ 
 'to» / i^airi fit rth (Ielij y ^ a. m^c r e f n_- 
 
 ^cach StrPciy t\ the ^^reft^ C iti^ . 
 '7io\Ar yjSLc Q-tc^ S-ir yaurqr liiile Coti^vQ 
 itttAe cou-ni-ry ^Mlta-re &li ts prei-t€j. 
 anc( pleamTii- ,»7^R. you. Tiitue fielcic 
 
"fe ■j>lca.<;e. my little C\Crn ^nd. Ueep 
 Jier etfcs, dnd ears, a.n^ TtAnir tln^^ 
 
 httic /loir fi fro/ji 
 
 lAho (o\f('i lii^ fifth g'lT? vartf 7nrvich, 
 'hhi KTttwi t^at sTic 7oue^ yitTH. ^eyu- 
 
 *^^ the ti^dy-. 
 
 Jump and Yicii. 
 
 Pull ae fu^ . 
 
 Jli iake- 
 _4 ptcee iff CA./cr 
 ¥or tnp saAe- 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 her little friends and her presents and plays 
 will make her happy to-day; and this little 
 note too. Last birthday you were in Beach 
 Street, in the great City, now you are at 
 your little cottage in the country where all 
 is pretty and pleasant, and you have fields 
 and woods, and brooks and flowers to please 
 my little Queen, and keep her eyes, and ears, 
 and hands and tongue and feet, all busy. 
 This little note is from 
 
 FATHER, 
 who loves his little girl very much, and knows 
 that she loves him very dearly. 
 
 Play, play. 
 
 All the day. 
 
 Jump and run 
 
 Every one. 
 
 Full of fun, 
 
 All take 
 [93] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 A piece of cake. 
 For my sake. 
 
 His wish to encourage the Httle girl 
 in her efforts to be good, kind, gentle, 
 and patient, and his appreciation of her 
 accomplishment, is set forth in this 
 characteristic little note : 
 
 Concord, Cottage, 
 February 2nd, 1842. 
 My dear Elizabeth, 
 
 You give me much pleasure by your 
 still, quiet manners, and your desire to do 
 things, without asking impatiently and sel- 
 fishly for others to help you without trying 
 first to help yourself. Trying is doing ; 
 doing is but trying ; try then always and you 
 will do ; and every one loves to help those 
 who try. I will print a little sentence for 
 1 94] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN' 
 
 you in large letters and you who have already 
 found it so easy to do things for yourself will, 
 I dare say, remember it, and follow it too — ■ 
 This is it — 
 
 TRY FIRST : AND 
 THEN ask: and 
 TRY PATIENTLY TILL 
 YOU HAVE TRIED 
 YOUR BEST : AND 
 YOU WILL NOT NEED 
 TO ASK AT ALL. 
 
 Trying is the only 
 Schoolmaster 
 whose 
 Scholars 
 always 
 
 Succeed. 
 
 Your Father. 
 Cottage, 
 
 Feb. 2nd. 
 
 [95] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Little May, the youngest, was the 
 pet, not only of the Alcott household, 
 but of all the Alcott kin. This quaint 
 little dolly letter, written to her by her 
 Uncle Junius, has been framed and hangs 
 to-day in the library of May Alcott's 
 nephew, John : 
 
 Gift of Junius S. Alcott 
 
 to 
 
 Abby. 
 
 96] 
 
WITH THE CHILDREN 
 
 A 
 Little Face 
 once smiling 
 woke 
 to 
 greet, the day, 
 with sport and play, 
 Hands) on her Birthday, in shaking (Hands 
 with her sisters, 
 and, her visitors, 
 that, came, to, chime, 
 a, happy, time, with, Lizzy, 
 To, give, you, pleasure, uncle, 
 gives, this, treasure, to you, so, sweet, 
 
 So, keep, it, neat, and please, my. 
 
 Brother, & your Mother, by always, 
 
 finding that, by, minding, you 
 
 are, the kindest, little girl, that, 
 
 that, ever 
 
 stood d, in, 
 
 (Shoes) (Shoes) 
 
 [97] 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Mother's Influence 
 
 UPON the lives of all four of her 
 daughters the mother's influence 
 rested like a benediction. It is 
 felt in her letters ; it is reflected in the 
 journals of her girls and in the mus- 
 ings of Bronson Alcott, as set down 
 in his voluminous journals. And the 
 mother spirit hovers over Orchard House, 
 where "Little Women" was written and 
 lived. 
 
 While letters to Anna from her mother 
 are missing, Anna's journal shows how 
 
 vital was Mrs. Alcott's power in the 
 I98] 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 upbuilding of her noble character. 
 Louisa in "Little Women" has said that 
 the girls gave their hearts into their 
 mother's keeping, their souls into their 
 father's. Anna's letters bear eloquent 
 testimony to the strong, helpful, cheery 
 influence of the mother upon the child. 
 Among the first was this letter, written 
 by Anna when she was five years old 
 and visiting Mr. Alcott's family at Wol- 
 cott : 
 
 Letter to Mrs. Alcott. 
 
 Wolcott Aug. 1 2th, 1836. 
 Friday Morning. 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I have to go away by myself and cry 
 because I want to see you so much, and 
 little sister Lizy and Louisa. Doctor Fuller 
 [99] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 is coming to cure Grandmother, i shall see 
 you in a few days. You have a splendid 
 husband 
 
 Anna 
 V years of age — 
 (On this she had drawn her hand.) 
 
 She was six years old when she wrote 
 this: 
 
 Dear Mother, 
 
 I have not had a note from you for 
 a great while. You wanted some wafers 
 yesterday will you accept of them from me 
 There is not many but it is all that I have got. 
 I am very glad my birthday is so near for 
 as I grow older, I hope I shall grow better 
 and more useful to you, I hope soon we shall 
 be settled down in some comfortable little 
 home of our own and then shall be contented 
 
 [lOO] 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 and happy I hope, I must go to my sums 
 now, so goodbye dearest mother 
 
 Your loving Anna 
 
 A letter eloquent of the tender relation 
 between mother and child is this written 
 during the Fruitlands period : 
 
 For 
 
 Dearest mother 
 fruitlands. 
 
 Dear mother. 
 
 I wish that you would come to the 
 table again. I enjoy my meals much better 
 when you are at the table. Was not **Hera- 
 clitus" that father read about to-day, a dear 
 good man, it seems as though I wanted to 
 hug him up and kiss him. I wish men had 
 understood his thoughts better than they 
 did he would have been happier I think, I 
 
 [lOl] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 have enjoyed this morning readings and con- 
 versations better than I have before for a 
 good while, I suppose, because I talked and 
 I understood it so well. I do not write to 
 you very often dear mother but I love to 
 dearly when I feel like it, and I love to have 
 letters from you. I have not been as good 
 as I wish I had this week. I send a little 
 bunch of flowers to you they are not very 
 pretty but they are beautifully made and 
 I thought you would like them. I had a 
 beautiful time walking this morning with 
 Louisa. Good bye dearest mother from 
 your loving 
 
 Anna. 
 
 Many copies of her mother's letters 
 
 are found in Louisa's journals, showing 
 
 the daughter's intense, almost idola- 
 [102] 
 
THE mother's influence 
 
 trous affection. Louisa admired, re- 
 spected, and loved her father, but to her 
 mother her tenderest thought was given. 
 Marmee understood the wa3ward, 
 tempestuous, lovable child as no one 
 else did, not even loyal Anna, or admir- 
 ing Elizabeth. On her birthday the 
 mother writes to Louisa:^ 
 
 My dear little girl. 
 
 Will you accept this doll from me 
 on your 7th birthday. She will be a quiet 
 play mate for my active Louisa for seven 
 years more. Be a kind mamma and love her 
 for my sake. 
 
 Your mother. 
 Beach St., Boston, 1839. 
 
 Louisa was ten when this birthday 
 letter was sent : 
 
 [103] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Cottage in Concord. 
 
 Dear Daughter, 
 
 Your loth birthday has arrived, may 
 it be a happy one, & on each returning birth- 
 day may you feel new strength and resohition 
 to be gentle with sisters, obedient to parents, 
 loving to everyone & happy in yourself. 
 
 I give you the pencil case I promised, for 
 I have observed that you are fond of writing 
 & wish to encourage the habit. 
 
 Go on trying, dear, & each day it will 
 be easier to be & do good. You must help 
 yourself, for the cause of your little troubles 
 is in yourself, & patience & courage only 
 will make you what mother prays to see you 
 her good and happy girl. 
 
 During the Fruitlands period, when 
 
 Louisa was eleven, she found this little 
 1 104] 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 note tucked carefully away in a spot 
 where only she would find and read it : 
 
 Fruitlands. 
 My dear, 
 
 Thank you for your sweet note and 
 sweeter poetry. The second verse is very 
 good. Your love of nature is pure and true. 
 It is a lovely school in which good lessons 
 may be learned. The happy industry of 
 birds, the beautiful hves of flowers, the music 
 of brooks all help — 
 
 "The little fountain flows 
 So noiseless thro the wood. 
 The wanderer tastes repose. 
 And from the silent flood 
 Learns meekly to do good.'* 
 
 In the following letter, a pretty little 
 
 deference to the child's own personality 
 [losl 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 is shown by the mother, in that way 
 bringing out in the child respect and 
 deference for others : 
 
 Dear Daughter, 
 
 I hope you will not consider me an 
 intruder for stopping a moment in your 
 "poet's corner" to admire the neatness of 
 your desk, the sweetness of your poetry, the 
 beauty of the prospect from your window. 
 Cherish this love of nature, dear, enjoy all 
 it gives you, for God made these helps to 
 charm contemplation, and they strengthen 
 the noble desire to be or to do all that is 
 sent for our training & our good. Heaven 
 be about you my child, is mother's Sunday 
 prayer. 
 
 Louisa Alcott filled her diary with 
 
 letters from her mother, occasionally 
 
 [io6] 
 
Abi(;ail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott. 
 
 From a daguerreotype. 
 
 Pa^e 1 06. 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 adding in later life annotations of her 
 own. This letter from her mother when 
 Louisa was eleven is an example : 
 
 (From Louisa Alcott's Diary.) 
 Concord, 1843. 
 Dear Louy, 
 
 I enclose a picture for you which I 
 always liked very much, for I have imagined 
 that you might be just such an industrious 
 daughter & I such a feeble but loving mother, 
 looking to your labor for my daily bread. 
 Keep it for my sake, & your own, for you and 
 I always like to be grouped together. 
 
 Mother. 
 
 Then follows the picture and the lines 
 written by Louisa in her journal : 
 
 [107] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 To Mother. 
 I hope that soon dear mother, you & I may be 
 In the quiet room my fancy has so often 
 
 made for thee, 
 The pleasant sunny chamber, the cushioned 
 
 easy chair. 
 The books laid for your reading, the vase of 
 
 flowers fair. 
 The desk beside the window where the sun 
 
 shines warm and bright. 
 And there in ease and quiet, the promised 
 
 book you write, 
 While I sit close beside you, content at last 
 
 to see. 
 That you can rest dear mother, & I can 
 
 cherish thee. 
 
 Louisa lived to see her hope realized 
 
 and the dream of many years a beautiful 
 
 reality. 
 
 [io8] 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 Like most writers, Louisa was moody, 
 and in her hours of depression and de- 
 spondency she looked upon her work as a 
 failure and herself as a useless drag upon 
 the family. At such times Marmee in- 
 variably came to the rescue and per- 
 suaded her discouraged daughter to use 
 the pen she was ready to lay down. 
 Even in Louisa's childhood, when her only 
 promise of future literary achievement 
 were her tragedies and melodramas of 
 lurid style, little gifts show the mother's 
 faith and pride in her daughter's work. 
 So did her letters, of which this is an 
 example : 
 
 Dear Louisa : 
 
 I sometimes stray about the house and 
 
 take a peep into the journal. Your pages 
 [109] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 lately are blank. I am sure your life has 
 many fine passages well worth recording, 
 and to me they are always precious. Any- 
 thing like intellectual progress in my children 
 seems to compensate for much disappoint- 
 ment & perplexity in my own life. Do 
 write a little each day, dear, if but a line, 
 to show me how bravely you begin the 
 battle, how patiently you wait for the rewards 
 sure to come when the victory is nobly won. 
 
 Ever yrs. 
 
 Mother. 
 
 On her fourteenth birthday the mother 
 accompanies the gift of a pen with this 
 little poem : 
 
 Oh, may this pen your muse inspire, 
 
 When wrapt in pure poetic fire, 
 
 To write some sweet, some thrilling verse ; 
 [no] 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 A song of love or sorrow's lay. 
 Or duty's clear but tedious way 
 
 In brighter hope rehearse. 
 Oh, let your strain be soft and high, 
 
 Of crosses here, of crowns beyond the sky ; 
 Truth guide your pen, inspire your theme. 
 
 And from each note joy's music stream. 
 
 Louisa Alcott owed much to her 
 mother's example and perhaps even more 
 to her mother's influence. This letter, 
 carefully preserved in the daughter's 
 journal, reveals a wealth of mother- 
 love and of God-given wisdom : 
 
 15th Birthday, 
 
 Hillside. 
 Dearest, 
 
 Accept this pen from your mother 
 
 and for her sake use it freely & worthily that 
 
 [III] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 each day of this your fifteenth year may 
 testify to some good word or thought or work. 
 
 I know there will be born into your spirit 
 new hopes, new gifts, for God helps the loving, 
 trusting heart that turns to Him. Lift up 
 your soul to meet the highest, for that alone 
 will satisfy your yearning, aspiring nature. 
 
 Your temperament is a peculiar one, & 
 
 there are few who can really help you. Set 
 
 about the formation of character & believe 
 
 me you are capable of obtaining a noble one. 
 
 Industry, patience, love, creates, endures, 
 
 gives all things, for these are the attributes 
 
 of the Almighty, & they make us mighty in 
 
 all things. May eternal love sustain you, 
 
 infinite wisdom guide you, & the peace which 
 
 passeth understanding reward you, my 
 
 daughter. 
 
 Mother. 
 Nov. 29th, 1846. 
 
 [112] 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 Deeds, not words, characterized Eliza- 
 beth Alcott, as readers of "Little 
 Women" will recall. She was about 
 seven when she sent this letter, one of 
 the very few she wrote, to her mother : 
 
 May, Friday 29. 
 Dear Mother, 
 
 I thank you very much for your 
 note. I will try to write better than I 
 have done. I have not always had a good 
 pen. I hope I shall improve in all my 
 studies this summer. I hope I can read 
 German & French very well, and know a 
 great deal about the countries. I must 
 write my journal now so I will bid you 
 
 good bye. 
 
 From your loving 
 Elizabeth. 
 I113I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Birthdays were always celebrated with 
 much rejoicing in the Alcott household, 
 the gift made secondary to the spirit of 
 the day. From the time they were old 
 enough to print, the Alcott children on 
 the mother's birthday made her some 
 little gift, accompanying it with a note. 
 Abba May or May, as she was always 
 called, at nine years old, began in prose 
 but lapsed into poetry : 
 
 Dear Mother, 
 
 I wish you a very happy 
 birthday. I hope you will find 
 my present Useful, and when you wear it 
 think of me. I have taken a great-deal 
 of Pleasure in making it for you. 
 Please take this Present mother 
 on your 49 birthday 
 [114] 
 
THE mother's influence 
 
 With the dearest Love and wishes 
 of your little daughter A. 
 
 With Mrs. Alcott, hardship, poverty, 
 the grief of seeing her husband misunder- 
 stood and often scoffed at, never lessened 
 her love for him, or her contentment in 
 the marriage relation. The year fol- 
 lowing her marriage in a letter to her 
 brother she wrote: *'My father has 
 never married a daughter or son more 
 completely happy than I am. I have 
 cares, and soon they will be arduous ones, 
 but with the mild, constant, and affec- 
 tionate sympathy and aid of my hus- 
 band, with the increasing health and 
 loveliness of my quiet and bright little 
 Anna, with good health, clear head, 
 
 grateful heart and ready hand, — what 
 [115J 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 can I not do when surrounded by influ- 
 ences like this ?" 
 
 Ideals were never shattered ; illusions, 
 if so they may be called, were nevw lost 
 by Mrs. Alcott through the stormy years 
 that laid between the first happy months 
 of her married life and the sunset days 
 when all her burdens were laid down. 
 To her, the husband who was so long 
 denied material success and intellectual 
 sympathy ever remained the lover and 
 friend. Her admiration for him was 
 unbounded, her faith in him complete. 
 So high she held him in heart and mind, 
 that it was difficult even for those who 
 loved him most to appreciate her es- 
 timate of him as Poet, Philosopher, and 
 
 Sage. 
 
 Iii6] 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 Concerning the most famous portrait 
 ever made of Bronson Alcott, done in 
 crayons by Mrs. Richard Hildredth, wife 
 of the historian and aunt of the portrait 
 painter, George Fuller, which, beautiful 
 as it was, did not satisfy the wife's ideal, 
 Mrs. Alcott writes : 
 
 A tinge of the incomprehensible lies 
 softly around it, a field of atmosphere, 
 as if she had worked with down from an 
 angel's wing rather than with a crayon, — 
 as if the moonlight had cast a shadow on 
 the lights of her picture, and a divinity had 
 touched with a soft shade, the dark portion 
 of the figure. Mrs. Hildredth has changed 
 the costume from a dress suit to a mantle 
 draped about the shoulders. This, I do 
 not Hke. The chaste simpHcity of Mr. 
 (ii7l 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Alcott's dress is more in character and 
 keeping with the severe simpHcity and 
 rectitude of his Hfe. Louisa admirably de- 
 scribes her father's appearance as she met 
 him at the cars. "His dress was neat and 
 poor. He looked cold and thin as an icicle, 
 but serene as God." After such a testimony, 
 from such a daughter, he can afford to dress 
 shabbily. 
 
 Contentment, whatever her lot, was 
 an attribute of Marmee ; she under- 
 estimated herself always. Unquestion- 
 ably, Louisa inherited her literary gift 
 quite as much from mother as from 
 father, and flashes of the quaint humor 
 so delightful in the daughter*s books are 
 found in the mother's letters. To a friend 
 
 she writes : *' My gifts are few. I live, 
 [118] 
 
THE MOTHER S INFLUENCE 
 
 love and learn, and find myself more con- 
 tent every day of my life with humble 
 conditions." 
 
 Louisa Alcott never laid claim to 
 poetic gift, but on a few occasions her 
 verses take to themselves true poetic 
 beauty. One of the most exquisite of 
 these poems was written by her on the 
 death of her mother, and was first pub- 
 lished anonymously in the "Masque of 
 Poets" of 1878: 
 
 Transfiguration 
 In Memoriam 
 
 Mysterious death ; who in a single hour 
 
 Life's gold can so refine, 
 
 And by thy art divine 
 Change mortal weakness to immortal power : 
 [119I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Bending beneath the weight of eighty years, 
 
 Spent with the noble strife 
 
 Of a victorious life, 
 We watched her fading heavenward, through 
 our tears. 
 
 But ere the sense of loss our hearts had 
 wrung, 
 
 A miracle was wrought : 
 
 And swift as happy thought 
 She lived again — brave, beautiful and young. 
 
 Age, pain and sorrow dropped the veils they 
 wore. 
 
 And showed the tender eyes 
 
 Of angels in disguise. 
 Whose disciphne so patiently she bore. 
 
 [120] 
 
THE mother's influence 
 
 The past years brought their harvest rich and 
 fair; 
 
 While memory and love, 
 
 Together fondly wove 
 A golden garland for the silver hair. 
 
 121 ] 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Children's Diaries 
 
 THE Alcott children were brought 
 up to think for themselves, to 
 reflect, and to give expression to 
 their thoughts. Never laughed at, they 
 were not afraid to speak or write of 
 what was in their minds. Each kept a 
 diary, and no incident that concerned 
 the little girls was too trivial for mention 
 in the record of the day. These inci- 
 dents, collected, give a more compre- 
 hensive view of the Alcotts as a family 
 
 than do the father's voluminous journals. 
 [122] 
 
Anna I^ronson Ai.con. 
 
 Frum a daguerreotype. 
 
 Pai-d 122. 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 When Anna was ten, she gravely ex- 
 plains under date of April 13, 1841 : 
 
 Father was too unwell to come down 
 stairs and mother ironed, Louisa and I 
 helped a little while. I wrote my journal and 
 a journal for Louisa as she thought she 
 could not write well enough. I had no other 
 lessons than that. We watched a little spider 
 and gave it some water to drink. In the 
 afternoon mother read loud the story of 
 the good aunt or part of it while we sewed 
 on the clean clothes I mended up the holes 
 and Louisa and Lizzy sewed on a sheet. In 
 the evening we played mother lets us play 
 in the evening. We went to bed soon. 
 
 This sewing bee recalls the long even- 
 ings in the March home, described in 
 [123] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 ** Little Women," when the four girls 
 and the mother sewed dutifully on sheets 
 for Aunt March, dividing seams into 
 countries, discussing Europe, Asia, 
 Africa, and America as they stitched. 
 When she was twelve, Anna's literary 
 aspirations sought a vent in attempted 
 poetry. Later she collaborated with 
 Louisa in writing the "Comic Tragedies." 
 Anna's confidante and comrade, Louisa, 
 was frequently the victim of these poetic 
 effusions, her reception of which gives 
 quite a line on her ardent temperament. 
 This entry in Anna's journal for April 
 23, 1843, is eloquent : 
 
 This morning I rose pretty early — After 
 
 breakfast I read and wrote stories. In the 
 [124] 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 afternoon I wrote some letters and the follow- 
 ing one to Louisa : 
 
 Louisa dear 
 
 With love sincere 
 Accept this little gift from me 
 
 It is with pleasure 
 
 I send this treasure 
 And with it send much love to thee. 
 
 Sister dear 
 Never fear 
 God will help you if you try. 
 Do not despair 
 But always care 
 To be good and love to try. 
 In the evening I read in a book called 
 'Stories on the Lord's-prayer. ' I talked 
 with Louisa after I went to bed and she 
 pinched me on my leg. 
 
 [125] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Two or three years later Anna writes : 
 
 Monday. 
 
 Mother went to Boston and Louisa and 
 I cleaned house all day. I love order above 
 all things and I take great pleasure in seeing 
 all neat about the house. 
 Tuesday. 
 
 I worked hard till 2 o'clock when we all 
 met to sew while mother read aloud from 
 "Miss Bremers Brothers and Sister's." It 
 is most beautiful such a happy family. I 
 think Miss Bremer would make a lovely 
 mother the mothers in her books are so sweet 
 and she has beautiful idear's about family's. 
 I love to read natural stories. 
 Wednesday 30th. 
 
 We rose very early and eat breakfast. I 
 
 think it is a dreadful thing to grow old and 
 [126I 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 not be able to fly about, but then I suppose 
 I shall not care about flying when I grow 
 older, still it is horrid to think about being 
 an old woman all wrinkled and blind. I wish 
 I could keep young forever. I should love 
 to live among all those I love and be with 
 them all the time. 
 
 Reading was a part of the daily routine 
 in the Alcott household, and Anna's 
 taste for German recalls vividly certain 
 episodes between Meg and John Brooks 
 in "Little Women." 
 
 Friday i8th. 
 
 I read one of Krummacher's parables 
 
 in German. I think they are very beautiful, 
 
 the language is so elegant. I love to hear 
 
 beautiful words and these stories are told so 
 
 simply and are full of such sweet thought. 
 [127] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 I found a great many which have never been 
 translated and I intend to try myself to 
 translate them. I think it is the pleasantest 
 thing I do to read German. It is such a 
 splendid language. I mean Elizabeth shall 
 learn to read it, she will enjoy it so much. 
 Saturday 19th. 
 
 In the afternoon I sewed and Louisa 
 read me a very silly story called 'The Golden 
 Cup.' I think there is a great deal of 
 nonsense written now a days, the papers are 
 full of silly stories. 
 Sunday 20th. 
 
 I have been reading lately a very beautiful 
 book given me by my mother. It is " Char- 
 acteristics of Women " by Mrs. Jameson. I 
 like it very much. It is a description of 
 Shakespear's Heroines, Portia is my favorite, 
 
 she was so noble and I liked the Trial scene 
 [128I 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 better than any of Shakespears that I ever 
 read. I think this part is beautiful. 
 
 *Let music sound while he doth make his 
 
 choice ; 
 Then if he love he make a swan like end 
 Fading in music' 
 
 I think this was a beautiful idea. 
 
 I passed a pleasant morning in school, 
 
 translating one of Krummacher's beautiful 
 
 parables. I find great pleasure in this. I 
 
 like German better than I do French. I 
 
 want much to study ItaUan. I have tried 
 
 myself several times but cannot manage it 
 
 without help. I think I should be very 
 
 happy if I could go to school. I think about 
 
 it most all the time and when I am in bed I 
 
 imagine myself in Boston going to Miss 
 
 Peabody's school with other girls and know 
 [129] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 that I am learning something. And I think 
 I lead rather too solitary a Hfe. I love to see 
 people. Mother read in the afternoon from 
 Miss Sedgwick's Letters. It was about 
 the Germans. She says they are a very 
 cheerful people and though poor yet they 
 always have a happy smile and cheerful face. 
 That their manners are beautiful. They 
 are so kind and simple. I know I should 
 love them, for I like everything German, 
 except their food, which I think must be 
 horrid, greasy cabbage and sour bread. 
 That seems bad. I should think they are so 
 fond of beautiful things ; music, poetry and 
 flowers, that they would not like such stuff. 
 September, 1845. 
 Friday ist. 
 
 I walked before breakfast, the sun was 
 bright and there was a cool wind. The 
 [ 130] 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 lane was full of beautiful flowers and the grass 
 was green and fresh. I had a lovely walk 
 and gathered a bunch of goldenrod, spirian 
 and gerandia. Everything was so beautiful 
 that all my unhappy thoughts of last night 
 flew away. I sometimes have strange feel- 
 ings, a sort of longing after something I 
 don't know what it is. I have a great many 
 wishes. I spent the day in the usual manner, 
 sewing and studying. In the evening Louisa 
 and I walked through the lane and talked 
 about how we should like to live and 
 dress and imagined all kinds of beautiful 
 things. 
 Sunday 3rd. 
 
 I sewed all day and mother read from 
 "Miss Sedgwick's Letters." I will write a 
 piece of poetry, as I have nothing very 
 pleasant to write about : 
 [131] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 "Oh when thy heart is full of fears 
 And the way is dim to Heaven 
 When the sorrow and the sin of years 
 Peace from thy soul has driven 
 Then through the mist of falling tears 
 Look up and be forgiven. 
 
 "And then rise up and sin no more 
 And from thy dark ways flee 
 Let Virtue o*er thy appetites 
 Have full and perfect mastery 
 And the kindly ones that hover o'er 
 Will ever strengthen thee. 
 
 "And though thou art helpless and forlorn 
 
 Let not thy heart's peace go 
 
 And though the riches of this world are gone 
 
 And thy lot is care and woe 
 
 Faint not, but journey ever on 
 
 True wealth is not below. 
 [132] I 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 "Oh, falter not but still look up 
 Let Patience be thy guide 
 Bless the rod and take the cup 
 And trustfully abide 
 Let not temptation vanquish thee 
 And the Father will provide." 
 
 Louisa composed these lines, which I 
 think are beautiful. She is a beautiful girl 
 and writes as good poetry as Lucretia David- 
 son, about whom so much has been written. 
 I think she will write something great one 
 of these days. As for me I am perfect in 
 nothing. I have no genius. I know a httle 
 of music, a little of French, German and 
 Drawing, but none of them well. I have a 
 foolish wish to be something great and I 
 shall probably spend my life in a kitchen 
 and die in the poor-house. I want to be 
 [133I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Jenny Lind or Mrs. Seguin and I can't and 
 so I cry. Here is another of Louisa's pieces 
 to mother. 
 
 "God comfort thee dear mother, 
 For sorrow sad and deep 
 Is lying heavy on thy heart 
 
 And this hath made thee weep. 
 
 "There is a Father o'er us, mother, 
 Who orders for the best 
 And peace shall come ere long, mother. 
 And dwell within thy breast. 
 
 "Then let us journey onward, mother. 
 And trustfully abide, 
 The coming forth of good or ill 
 Whatever may betide." 
 
 Helpfulness w^as encouraged in the 
 
 Alcott household ; habits of industry 
 [134] 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 were carefully fostered. The Alcott chil- 
 dren worked when they worked, played 
 when they played, but wasted hours 
 were unknown. They were taught to 
 make the most of every day. When 
 Anna was seventeen she wrote in her 
 diary : 
 
 August, 1848. 
 Thursday 17th. 
 
 Lizzy and I are making plans for spending 
 our days usefully. Here is mine. 
 
 Plan. 
 Rise at half past 4, bathe, dress and walk 
 till half past 5. 
 
 Dress and bathe the children. 
 Breakfast at 7. Work till 9. School 
 till 12. Work till 2. 
 
 Sew till 4. Practice till 5. 
 [135] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Hear Lizzy recite German and French till 
 6. Supper. 
 
 This will keep me pretty busy, but I find 
 I accomplish so much more when I have a 
 plan and certain times for certain things. 
 I never can do things without order. I like 
 to have something planned for every moment 
 of the day, so that when I get up in the morn- 
 ing I may know what to do. I wish I could 
 be learned. 
 
 An entry in Louisa's diary during the 
 Fruitlands period gives this insight into 
 one of her average days, w^hen a child of 
 eleven : 
 
 I rose at five, and after breakfast washed 
 
 the dishes and then helped mother work. I 
 
 took care of May in the afternoon. In the 
 
 evening I made some pretty things for my 
 [136] 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 dolly. Father and Mr. Lane had a talk and 
 father asked us if we saw any reason for 
 us to separate. Mother wanted to, she is 
 so tired. I like it, but not the school part 
 or Mr. L. 
 
 Note, too, that when it came to a 
 conference concerning family affairs, the 
 father asked the advice of his eleven- 
 year-old daughter, instead of following 
 the more customary method of with- 
 holding from her the family confidence 
 and deferring discussion of plans until 
 the children had gone to bed. 
 
 "Know Thyself," was ever the aim of 
 Bronson Alcott in the training of his 
 children, and Mr. Lane at Fruitlands 
 followed this same line of mental devel- 
 opment. This is one of his sample 
 [137] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 lessons which Louisa Alcott has copied 
 into her journal : 
 
 Sample of our Lessons 
 
 "What virtues do you wish more of," 
 asked Mr. L. I answer : 
 
 Patience Love Silence 
 
 Obedience Generosity Perseverance 
 
 Industry Respect Self-denial 
 
 "What vices less of ?" 
 
 Idleness Wilfulness Vanity 
 
 Impatience Impudence Pride 
 
 Selfishness Activity Love of cats 
 
 In this same lesson comes the twelve- 
 year-old Louisa's explanation of the dif- 
 ference between faith and hope : 
 
 Faith can believe without seeing; hope is 
 not sure, but tries to have faith when it de- 
 sires. 
 
 [138I 
 
CHILDREN S DIARIES 
 
 Louisa's love of nature, her trained 
 habits of thought, her poetic imagination, 
 and her keen appreciation of beauty 
 are indicated in this entry in her journal, 
 written at Fruitlands in 1843 or 1844, 
 when she was a child of ten or eleven : 
 
 I wrote in my imagination book, and 
 enjoyed it very much. Life is pleasanter 
 than it used to be, and I don't care about 
 dying any more. Had a splendid run, and 
 got a box of cones to burn. Sat and heard 
 the pines sing a long time. Had good dreams, 
 and woke now and then to think, and watch 
 the moon. I had a pleasant time with my 
 mind, for it was happy. 
 
 1 139] 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Girlhood and Womanhood 
 
 FAMILIAR to every reader of 
 "Little Women" is the March 
 family's quaint brown house with 
 its many windows, its old-fashioned gar- 
 den, its homely, homelike air, its unfailing 
 hospitality. This home, as described by 
 Louisa M. Alcott, is a picture of the 
 Alcott home at Concord, the scene of 
 the girlhood and young womanhood of 
 the Alcott children. Many of Louisa's 
 books were written there; "Little 
 
 Women" was lived there. In Concord, 
 
 [140] 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 Anna met John Pratt, and the first love 
 story in "Little Women" is Anna's life 
 romance. There little Beth passed from 
 the material to the spiritual life, and 
 Amy first developed the artistic talents 
 which later caused her work to be sought 
 for by art museums and private col- 
 lectors. 
 
 Anna's marriage was a great trial to 
 Louisa, for from early childhood the two 
 girls had been inseparable companions, 
 and after Anna's marriage Louisa learned 
 to look upon John as her brother. 
 
 Louisa's diary in the April following 
 the passing of Elizabeth touches upon 
 the change of homes in Concord, the 
 absence of May, who was studying art 
 in Boston, of Elizabeth and of Anna : 
 [141] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 April. 
 
 Came to occupy one wing of Hawthorne's 
 house (once ours) while the new one was 
 being repaired. Father, mother and I kept 
 house together, May being in Boston, Anna 
 at Pratt farm, & for the first time Lizzy 
 absent. I don't miss her as I expected to do, 
 for she seems nearer & dearer than before, 
 & I am glad to know she is safe from pain & 
 age in some world where her innocent soul 
 must be happy. 
 
 Death iiever seemed terrible to me, & now 
 is beautiful, so I cannot fear it, but find it 
 friendly and wonderful. 
 
 Amy's artistic efforts and her failures 
 in "Little Women" are taken from May's 
 actual experiences in Concord. Turn- 
 ing the career of the youngest of the 
 [ 142 ] 
 
,\iii; \ May Alcott. 
 
 From a photograph. 
 
 Page 142. 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 Alcott girls into a romance earlier in 
 *' Little Women" than it actually 
 occurred in life, doubtless prevented 
 Louisa Alcott from chronicling the artis- 
 tic success of her youngest sister, a suc- 
 cess to which she largely contributed 
 and in which she took great pride. 
 
 May Alcott's pictures are found to- 
 day in art museums and in leading pri- 
 vate collections in this country and 
 abroad. Her copies of Turner are re- 
 markable. In the Kensington Gallery 
 in London students are given them to 
 study in preference to the originals. 
 Several fine examples are in American 
 museums, and a few are owned by mem- 
 bers of the Alcott family. 
 
 When the Alcotts moved into Orchard 
 [143I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 House, the girls painted and papered 
 the interior themselves. May filled the 
 nooks and corners with panels, on which 
 she painted birds and flowers. Over the 
 fireplaces she inscribed mottoes in Old 
 English characters. 
 
 The study in Orchard House was the 
 real center of the household. For the 
 chimney piece Ellery Channing wrote an 
 epigram, which May Alcott painted upon 
 it, and which has been used in the stage 
 reproduction of "Little Women": 
 **The Hills are reared, the Valleys scooped in 
 vain. 
 If Learning's Altars vanish from the Plain." 
 In Orchard House to-day, walls, doors, 
 and window casings are etched with May 
 Alcott's drawings, many preserved under 
 [144] 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 glass, including a miniature portrait of 
 a little girl, naively and modestly in- 
 scribed "The Artist." 
 
 High thoughts and cheerful minds 
 triumphed over poverty in those Concord 
 days. Shortly after the family's return 
 from Fruitlands, Louisa wrote for Ellen 
 Emerson the fairy stories, "Flower 
 Fables." She was at the time only 
 sixteen. This was her earliest published 
 work, and it was many years before she 
 achieved literary fame, although, as did 
 Jo in "Little Women," she materially 
 helped in the support of the family by 
 writing lurid tales. 
 
 Literature rather than commerce freed 
 the Alcotts from the burden of debt. 
 Louisa's fame was the result, neither of 
 [145] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 accident, nor of a single achievement, 
 but had for its background the whole 
 generous past of her family. Her "Hos- 
 pital Sketches" were her letters home, 
 when she was serving as hospital nurse 
 during the Civil War. "Little Women'* 
 is a chronicle of her family. Louisa 
 certainly made good use of the vicissi- 
 tudes of the Alcotts. She always saw 
 the funny side and was not afraid to 
 make book material of the home experi- 
 ences, elevating or humiliating. Her 
 books number between twenty-five and 
 thirty. Nearly every one takes its basic 
 idea from some real experience. The 
 books written by the Alcott family, 
 including some eight or ten published by 
 
 Mr. Alcott, Louisa's output, and one or 
 [146] 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 two written by May, fill two shelves of 
 an alcove devoted to Concord authors 
 in the Alcott town library. 
 
 Anna's little sons, familiarly known 
 in the Alcott household as Freddie and 
 Johnnie, or Jack, gave to Bronson Alcott 
 in his later days fresh opportunity for 
 his favorite study — childhood. To 
 both boys came frequent messages and 
 gifts from Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt 
 Louisa. 
 
 Louisa Alcott sent to Freddie this poem 
 on his third birthday : 
 
 A song for little Freddie 
 On his third Birthday. 
 
 Down in the field 
 Where the brook goes, 
 lH7] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Lives a white lammie 
 With a little black nose. 
 
 He eats the grass so green, 
 He drinks the "la la" sweet, 
 *'Buttertups" and daisies. 
 Grow all about his feet. 
 
 The ** birdies" they sing to him. 
 The big sun in the sky, 
 Warms his little "Toe-toes," 
 And peeps into his eye. 
 
 He's a very gentle lammie. 
 He never makes a fuss, 
 He never "saps his marmar,** 
 He never says "I muss." 
 
 He hops and he runs, 
 
 "Wound and wound" all day, 
 [148] 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 And when the night comes, 
 
 He goes "bye low" on the hay. 
 
 In a nice Httle barn, 
 Where the "moo-moos" are; 
 Freddie says "Good night," 
 But the lammie he says " Baa !" 
 
 To be sung by Marmar with appropriate 
 accompaniment of gesture, etc. 
 
 On the outside of the letter appears : 
 
 A Httle song for Freddie, 
 On his third birthday. 
 With "lots" of loving kisses. 
 From his Wee-wee far away. 
 
 On his sixth birthday Grandpa con- 
 tributes : 
 
 [149] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Concord, Freddie's 
 6th Birthday, 
 1869. 
 Dear Freddy, 
 
 I give you for your Birth Day Present 
 this new Picture Book. It has plain words 
 for you to pick out and read. The stories 
 are short and about things that you know. 
 Now, my little scholar, look among the 
 leaves every day, and see how many words 
 you can tell, — Very soon you will find you 
 can read whole pages, spell the whole book 
 through, and write the stories, word for word 
 on your slate or in your little writing book. 
 Then you will not be a little Dunce, and when 
 Grandpa comes to see you, you will be glad 
 to show him how well you can read. 
 
 Grandma gives the top to Johnny. 
 
 From Grandpa. 
 [ISO] 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 Grandma, not to be outdone, sent 
 this: 
 
 Dear Freddy, 
 
 If worms give us the silk thread — 
 can't we find time enough to find out how the 
 Fabric is made which dresses are formed of — 
 minutes and days — ours. Days and Years 
 are passing away — let us be busy — and 
 I guess we will get to the Vienna Exposi- 
 tion — 
 
 "How doth the little busy Bee" 
 Improve each shining hour — Be a Bee — 
 and your hours will be too few for the Flowers 
 of Science and the Wheels of Use. Grandma 
 will help you with her one dim e3^e and 
 Grandpa will explain a great deal to you with 
 his Shining Light — Mama with your help 
 will make you a true, good man. — 
 [iSi] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 1873. 
 
 On his twelfth birthday Aunt Louisa 
 again lapsed into poetry : 
 
 f . A. P. 
 
 Who likes to read a fairy tale, 
 Or stories told of sword and sail. 
 Until his little optics fail ? 
 
 Our boy. 
 
 Who loves his father's watch to wear 
 And often draw it out with care 
 Upon its round white face to stare ? 
 
 Our boy. 
 
 Who rather proud of his small feet 
 When wearing slippers new and neat, 
 And stockings red as any beet ? 
 
 Our boy. 
 [iS2l 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 Who in his pocket keeps his hands 
 As round the house he "mooning" stands 
 Or reads the paper like the mans ? 
 
 Our boy. 
 
 Who Hkes to "boss" it over Jack, 
 And sometimes gives a naughty whack, 
 But gets it heartily paid back ? 
 
 Our boy. 
 
 Who likes to have a birthday froHc 
 And eats until he has a colic, 
 That for the time is diaboHc ? 
 
 Our boy. 
 
 Who is the dearest little lad, 
 That aunt or mother ever had. 
 To love when gay and cheer when sad ? 
 
 Our boy. 
 [iS3l 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 May angels guard him with their wings, 
 And all brave, good and happy things. 
 Make nobler thou than crowned kings. 
 
 Our boy. 
 March 28th, 1875. 
 
 John, the original of Daisy in "Little 
 Women,'* received in his babyhood days 
 from Aunt Louisa, some tiny blue stock- 
 ings with this verse : 
 
 Two pair of blue hose, 
 For Johnny's white toes, 
 So Jack Frost can't freeze em, 
 Nor darned stockings tease em, 
 So pretty and neat 
 I hope the small feet 
 Will never go wrong. 
 But walk straight and strong. 
 The way father went. 
 [154] 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 We shall all be content, 
 If the dear little son 
 Be a second good John. 
 
 On his tenth birthday, both Grandpa 
 and Grandma Alcott sent these char- 
 acteristic greetings to their younger 
 grandson : 
 
 Grandma Alcott to Johnny, 
 loth birthday. June 24th. 1875. 
 
 Giving song, all day long, 
 Under the elm or willow; 
 
 With sunshine shed 
 
 On the Httle head 
 That rests on Grandma's pillow. 
 
 To and fro, 
 
 Let it go, 
 While inside piping cheery, 
 [155] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 As he takes his rest 
 In his hang-bird*s nest 
 Lies Grandma's little deary. 
 
 Grandpa Alcott to Johnny. 
 June 24th. 1875. 
 
 A fine little sword 
 
 For gallant Capt. Jack, 
 As he marches down the hill 
 
 His army at his back. 
 
 No giants will it kill 
 
 Since its only made for show. 
 
 And the best way to fight. 
 Is a kiss for a blow. 
 
 In these days of private secretaries, 
 
 labor-saving devices, and specialization, 
 
 [156] 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 it is difficult to comprehend the obstacles 
 that Louisa Alcott encountered in writ- 
 ing. Her day was filled with other 
 tasks, housework, sewing, teaching, 
 nursing — yet the pen was never idle, 
 the busy brain was never still. Her 
 power of concentration made it possible 
 for her to write under harassing condi- 
 tions. This is her own description of 
 her methods of work : 
 
 My methods of work are very simple and 
 soon told. My head is my study, and there 
 I keep the various plans of stories for years 
 sometimes, letting them grow as they will 
 till I am ready to put them on paper. Then 
 it is quick work, as chapters go down word 
 for word as they stand in my mind, and need 
 no alteration. I never copy, since I find by 
 
 hsrl 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 experience that the work I spend the least 
 time upon is best liked by critics and speakers. 
 
 Any paper, any pen, any place that is 
 quiet suit me, and I used to write from 
 morning till night without fatigue when 
 "the steam was up." Now, however, I am 
 paying the penalty of twenty years of over 
 work, and can write but two hours a day, 
 doing about twenty pages, sometimes more, 
 though my right thumb is useless from 
 writer's cramp. 
 
 While a story is under way I live in it, 
 
 see the people more plainly than real ones 
 
 around me, hear them talk, and am much 
 
 interested, surprised and provoked at their 
 
 actions, for I seem to have no power to rule 
 
 them, and can simply record their experiences 
 
 and performances. 
 
 Materials for the children's tales I find 
 [IS81 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 in the lives of the Httle people about me, for 
 no one can invent anything so droll, pretty 
 or pathetic as the sayings and doings of these 
 small actors, poets and martyrs. In the 
 older books, the events are mostly from real 
 life, the strongest the truest, and I yet hope to 
 write a few of the novels which have been 
 simmering in my brain while necessity and 
 unexpected success have confined me to 
 juvenile literature. 
 
 I gave Mrs. Moulton many facts for her 
 article in " Famous Women," and there are 
 many other sketches which will add more if 
 they are wanted. The first edition of 
 **Jo's Boys" was twenty thousand I beheve, 
 and over fifty thousand were soon gone. 
 Since January I know Httle about the sales. 
 People usually ask "How much have you 
 made?" I am contented with a hundred 
 [159] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 thousand, and find my best success in the 
 comfort my family enjoy ; also a naughty 
 satisfaction in proving that it was better 
 not to *' stick to teaching" as advised, but to 
 write.' 
 
 With all her love for her father, irrev- 
 erent Louisa delighted in making fun of 
 him. The complacent philosopher, with 
 his voluminous journals, his several books 
 in manuscript, his liking, despite the 
 brilliancy of his conversations, for the 
 written rather than the spoken word, 
 was a wasteful user of paper and a care- 
 less dispenser of ink. That her father 
 enjoyed her good-natured banter is shown 
 by the fact that in his journal he has 
 entered the following poem, written by 
 
 Louisa at nineteen : 
 
 f 160I 
 
Louisa May Alcott. 
 
 From a daguerreotype. 
 Page 1 60. 
 
GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 
 
 From Louisa on my 52nd birthday. 
 Nov. 29th, 1 85 1. 
 To Father. 
 A cloth on the table where dear Plato sits 
 By one of the Graces was spread 
 With the single request that he would not 
 
 design 
 New patterns with black ink or red. 
 And when he is soaring away in the clouds 
 I beg he'll remember and think 
 Though the "blackbirds" are fair his cloth 
 
 will be fairer 
 For not being deluged with ink. 
 May plenty of paper of pens and of quiet 
 To my dear pa forever be given 
 Till he has written such piles that when on 
 
 the top 
 He can walk calmly on into Heaven. 
 
 [i6i] 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Friendships and Beliefs 
 
 RARE friendships existed among the 
 great minds of that period, when 
 Transcendentalism in America was 
 first talked and lived, a close bond of 
 sympathy uniting Bronson Alcott, Emer- 
 son, Thoreau, Ellery Channing, Mar- 
 garet Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody. 
 Such association made its impress upon 
 the Alcott daughters. Anna's diary is 
 filled with references to visits with the 
 Emersons. Louisa's deal less with the 
 family and more with the intellectual 
 life of the great philosopher, whom she 
 
 fl62l 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 made her idol. Through life he was her 
 stanch and understanding friend. 
 "The Apostles of the Newness" was 
 the scoffing term applied to these liter- 
 ary giants of New England by those who 
 lacked the mental and spiritual insight 
 to recognize greatness in others. 
 
 This attitude of ridicule was largely 
 responsible for the continued attacks 
 upon the Dial, a quarterly issued by 
 the Transcendentalists, edited from 1840 
 to 1844 by Emerson, Margaret Fuller, 
 George Ripley, and Thoreau. Between 
 its modest covers were many of the in- 
 tellectual masterpieces of the time : its 
 rare volumes are still treasure-houses of 
 literature which to-day command any 
 
 price. Mr. Alcott selected its title and 
 [163I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 was to a large extent responsible for its 
 policy. His Orphic Sayings in the Dial, 
 now looked upon as classics, were the 
 butt of the press at the time, and the 
 derision of Boston society. 
 
 In these Orphic Sayings, he gave this 
 remarkable definition of Reform: "Re- 
 forms are the noblest of facts. Extant 
 in time, they work for eternity : dwelling 
 with men, they are with God." 
 
 Conversation among these friends was 
 neither trivial nor useless, and in the 
 Alcott circle, which included Emerson, 
 Thoreau, Theodore Parker, William 
 Henry Channing, James Freeman Clarke, 
 Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. Cheney, and 
 other of the early Transcendentalists, 
 
 later on augmented by James Russell 
 
 [164] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 Lowell and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a series 
 of drawing-room symposiums was estab- 
 lished, with Alcott, whom Emerson called 
 "serious and superior," as a leader. 
 Much of the substance of these conver- 
 sations is found in the Alcott journals, 
 and in the unpublished manuscripts of 
 the poet-philosopher. 
 
 In Concord, the Alcotts once more 
 enjoyed the literary companionship they 
 craved. Emerson was a near neighbor. 
 Thoreau had his cabin at Walden, where 
 he had established "a community of 
 one." To and from Boston came others 
 of the Transcendental group, and Concord 
 became the center of thought for New 
 England. 
 
 Thinking, however, was not the only 
 [i6sl 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 occupation of Bronson Alcott. Dreamer 
 he was, but he dehghted in toil and ever 
 upheld the dignity of labor, not ashamed 
 nor afraid to work for hire as a laborer 
 in his neighbor's field, while nightly 
 conducting drawing-room conversations 
 with a company of peers and students. 
 
 When Thoreau built his cabin, Alcott 
 helped him. They cut the trees from 
 Emerson's grove. While Emerson was 
 abroad, they built a summer-house for 
 him on his grounds. It stood for many 
 years, a picturesque temple of friendship. 
 William Henry Channing mentions a 
 morning spent there, reading Margaret 
 Fuller's Italian letters. May Alcott has 
 made drawings of it, which were pub- 
 lished in a volume of "Concord Sketches" 
 [i66] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 that also contained her drawing of Haw- 
 thorne's house. 
 
 Mr. Alcott practically rebuilt Orchard 
 House for his own family. Mrs. Child, 
 a friend of Mrs. Alcott, thus describes 
 this home, which is now preserved as a 
 memorial to Louisa M. Alcott and is 
 visited by thousands every year : 
 
 When they bought the place the house 
 was so very old that it was thrown into the 
 bargain, with the supposition that it was fit 
 for nothing but firewood. But Mr. Alcott 
 had an architectural taste, more intelligible 
 than his Orphic Sayings. He let every old 
 rafter and beam stay in its place, changed 
 old ovens and ash holes into Saxon arched 
 alcoves, and added a washerwoman's old 
 shanty to the rear. The result is a house 
 [167] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 full of queer nooks and corners, with all 
 manner of juttings in and out. It seems as 
 if the spirit of some old architect had dropped 
 it down in Concord. 
 
 Thoreau, master builder himself, has 
 paid to Bronson Alcott this tribute : 
 
 One of the last of the philosophers, Con- 
 necticut gave him to the world. He peddled 
 first her wares, afterwards, as he declares, 
 his brains. These he peddles still, bearing 
 for fruit, only his brain, like the nut its ker- 
 nel. His words and attitude always suppose 
 a better state of things than other men are 
 aquainted with, and he will be the last man 
 to be disappointed when the ages revolve. 
 He has no venture in the present. But 
 
 though comparatively disregarded now, 
 [i68] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 when his day comes, laws unsuspected by 
 most will take effect, and rulers will come to 
 him for advice. 
 
 Emerson, who saw the boy mind be- 
 neath the philosopher's dignity, said 
 tenderly of Bronson Alcott : **He is 
 certainly the youngest man of his age 
 we have seen. When I looked at his 
 gray hairs, his conversation sounded 
 pathetic ; but I looked again and they 
 reminded me of the gray dawn." 
 
 Even his friends, to say nothing of 
 Louisa, occasionally poked fun at him 
 for chronicling so minutely all his 
 thoughts. Ellery Channing called his 
 library, **Encyclopediea de Moi-meme, 
 en cents volumes." Yet these journals 
 
 and records are now worth more than the 
 
 [169] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 fine library he collected and in which he 
 delighted. 
 
 Emerson has thus described the origin 
 of the Fruitlands community : 
 
 On the invitation of James P. Greaves 
 of London, the friend and fellow-laborer of 
 Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Mr. Alcott went 
 to England in 1842. Mr. Greaves died 
 before his arrival, but Mr. Alcott was re- 
 ceived cordially by his friends, who had 
 given his name to their school, Alcott House, 
 Ham, near London. He spent several 
 
 months in making acquaintance with various 
 classes of reformers. On his return to 
 America, he brought with him two of his 
 English friends, Chas. Lane and H. C. 
 Wright ; and Mr. Lane having bought a farm 
 
 which he called Fruitlands, at Harvard, 
 [170] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 Mass., they all went there to found a new 
 community. 
 
 The Fruitlands experiment and its 
 failure have been immortalized by Louisa 
 Alcott in her "Transcendental Wild 
 Oats." The detail of it is thus de- 
 scribed by a friend of the Alcott family, 
 who had the story from Bronson Alcott 
 himself: 
 
 The crop failures necessitated the com- 
 munity living on a barley diet, as anything 
 animal was not allowed, not even milk and 
 eggs. Now and then they gave a thought 
 as to what they should do for shoes when 
 those they had were gone ; for depriving the 
 cow of her skin was a crime not to be tolerated. 
 The barley crop was injured in harvesting, 
 [171I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 and before long want was staring them in 
 the face. The Alcotts remained at Fruit- 
 lands till mid-winter in dire poverty, all the 
 guests having taken their departure as pro- 
 visions vanished. Friends came to the rescue, 
 and, Mr. Alcott concluded with pathos in his 
 voice, "We put our little women on an ox- 
 sled and made our way to Concord ! So 
 faded one of the dreams of my youth. I 
 have given you the facts as they were ; 
 Louisa has given the comic side in 'Trans- 
 cendental Wild Oats' ; but Mrs. Alcott could 
 give you the tragic side." 
 
 Indeed, it was always Mrs. Alcott who 
 could have given the tragic side, skill- 
 fully as she kept her worries hidden. Her 
 own family, indignant because Bronson 
 
 Alcott could not better provide the 
 
 [172] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 material needs for his family, on more 
 than one occasion besought the faithful 
 wife to leave him. 
 
 A letter from her brother, urging this 
 step, drew forth from her a defense of 
 Bronson Alcott which the husband enters 
 in his journal as follows : 
 
 November 
 1840 
 
 Passages of a letter from my wife to one 
 who misapprehends and perverts my life 
 and purposes. 
 
 "If I do not mistake the spirit as well as 
 letter of your remark you would have us 
 believe that a righteous retribution has 
 Overtaken us, (or my husband, and we are 
 one,) and that the world is justly punishing 
 him for not having conciliated it, by conform- 
 [173] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 ing to its wills and ways. — You say that 
 my husband was told ten years ago, that the 
 world could not understand him. It per- 
 haps fell dead on his ears and ever will. 
 There is no human voice can convince him 
 that the path he has chosen to tread, thorny, 
 bleak, solitary, as it is, is not the right one 
 for him. Just so did that man of Nazareth 
 whom all the world profess to admire and 
 adore, but few to imitate ; and these few 
 are the laughing-stock of the Christian 
 Community. They are branded as vision- 
 aries and fools. But this little band when 
 alone and disencumbered of idle observation, 
 enjoy the recital of their privations ; they 
 have been reviled, but they revile not again ; 
 they know sorrow and are acquainted with 
 grief; and yet there is joy in that group of 
 sinless men, such as angels might desire to 
 [174] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 partake of. I am not writing poetry, but I 
 have tried to place before your mind, in as 
 brief, but clear a manner as I am able, our 
 real condition, and Mr. Alcott's merit as a 
 man, who, though punished and neglected 
 by a wicked world, has much to console and 
 encourage him in the confidence and co- 
 operation of some of the wisest and best men 
 living. Ten such, were they permitted in 
 their several vocations to act as teachers, 
 preachers, and printers, would save our 
 wicked city from the ruin that awaits it. 
 But they are turned, hke the Nazarene, into 
 solitary places to lament the blindness and 
 folly of mankind, who are following the vain 
 and fleeting shadow for the real and abiding 
 substance. But to return to Mr. Alcott, is 
 he to sell his soul, or what is the same thing, 
 his principles, for the bread that perisheth ? 
 [175] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 No one will employ him in his way ; he can- 
 not work in theirs, if he thereby involve his 
 conscience. He is so resolved in this matter 
 that I believe he will starve and freeze before 
 he will sacrifice principle to comfort. In this, 
 I and my children are necessarily implicated : 
 we make and mean to make all the sacrifices 
 we can to sustain him, but we have less to 
 sustain us in the spirit, and therefore, are 
 more Hable to be overcome of the flesh. 
 He has, for a long time gone without every- 
 thing which he could not produce by labor, 
 from his own place, that no one could in 
 truth reproach him with wantonly eating 
 of the fruits of another's labor. 
 
 He was sent for by friends in Hingham to 
 talk with them ; which he did two evenings ; 
 his expenses were paid and $23. put into his 
 
 hands as a slight compensation for the benefit 
 [176] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 they felt he had conferred upon them by his 
 conversations. I should like to copy the 
 note accompanying it, but you never care 
 to see how his fellow fanatics rave on these 
 holy themes, life, duty, destiny of man. 
 Thus he occasionally finds a market for his 
 thoughts and experiences, which, though 
 inadequate to our support, is richly prized 
 as the honest gains of an innocent and 
 righteous labor. You spoke of his " poetical 
 wardrobe" whether in satire or in a worthier 
 spirit, I cannot tell. However spiritual 
 he may have become, there is still enough of 
 the carnal to feel the chills of winter, and 
 the chiller blasts of satire. His tatters are 
 the rags of righteousness and keep him 
 warmer than they would anyone whose 
 spirit was less cheered and warmed by the 
 fires of eternal love and truth. 
 [177] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 An appreciative account of Mr. Alcott's 
 famous school in the Masonic Temple, 
 Boston, is found in the "Record of a 
 School," edited by Elizabeth Peabody, 
 published in 1835, republished in 1874. 
 The "Conversations with Children on 
 the Gospels," edited by Mr. Alcott in 
 two volumes, appearing in 1 836-1837, 
 caused such a commotion in Boston as 
 to result in the downfall of the Temple 
 School. Reading these conversations 
 to-day, one is impressed with the modern 
 quality of their thought. They were 
 forerunners of that higher criticism, 
 which with the Bible student now sup- 
 plants the old blind acceptance without 
 reflection of even obscure Biblical pas- 
 sages. 
 
 I178I 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 On philosophy and reUgion Mr. Alcott 
 and Miss Peabody delighted to talk and 
 write. Their discussion of the existence 
 of evil is startlingly modern. 
 
 "I do not think that evil should be 
 clothed in form by the imagination," 
 writes Miss Peabody to Mr. Alcott ; 
 **I think every effort should be made to 
 strip it of all individuality, all shaping 
 and all coloring. And the reason is, 
 that Evil has in truth no substantial 
 existence, that it acquires all the existence 
 it has from want of faith and soul culti- 
 vation, and that this is sufficient reason 
 why all cultivation should be directed 
 to give positiveness, coloring, shaping^ 
 to all kinds of good — Good only being 
 
 eternal truth." 
 
 [179] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 In reply, the philosopher thus com- 
 ments in his diary: "Evil has no posi- 
 tive existence, I agree with Miss Pea- 
 body, but it has usurped a positive place 
 and being in the popular imagination, 
 and by the imagination must it be made 
 to flee away into its negative life. How 
 shall this be done ? By shadowing forth 
 in vivid colors the absolute beauty and 
 phenomena of good, by assuming evil 
 not as positive, but as negative.'* 
 
 "I shall always love you for loving 
 Alcott," writes Emerson to his school- 
 mate and lifelong friend, the Reverend 
 W. H. Furness. *'He is a great man, 
 the god with the herdsman of Admetus. 
 His conversation is sublime ; yet when 
 
 I see how he is underestimated by culti- 
 [i8o] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 vated people, I fancy none but I have 
 heard him talk." 
 
 In the midst of slander and petty per- 
 secutions, Alcott writes in his diary for 
 April, 1837: 
 
 I have been striving to apprehend the 
 
 real in the seeming, to strip ideas of their 
 
 adventitious phrases and behold them in 
 
 their order and powers. I have sought to 
 
 penetrate the showy terrestrial to find the 
 
 heavenly things. I have tried to translate 
 
 into ideas the language and images of spirit, 
 
 and thus to read God in his works. The 
 
 outward I have seen as the visage and type 
 
 of the inward. Ever doth this same nature 
 
 double its design and stand forth — now 
 
 before the inner, now before the outer sense 
 
 of man, at once substance and form, image 
 [181] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 and idea, so that God shall never slip wholly 
 from the consciousness of the soul. 
 
 Emerson, weary of seeing his friend 
 misunderstood, urges him to give up 
 teaching and become an author, pictur- 
 ing as his golden view for Alcott that 
 one day he will leave the impracticable 
 world to wag its own way, sit apart, and 
 write his oracles for its behoof. 
 
 "Write ! let them hear or let them 
 forbear," he thunders. "The written 
 word abides until, slowly and unex- 
 pectedly, and in widely sundered places, 
 it has created its own church." 
 
 The unreality of evil, as taught and 
 believed by Alcott nearly a century ago, 
 laughed and scoffed at then, was twenty- 
 five years later practically the founda- 
 [182] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 tion of a belief which gained its first 
 foothold in New England, and, with 
 headquarters in Boston, has spread, until 
 to-day its followers and churches circle 
 the civilized globe — a new-old religion, 
 based on the literal acceptance of the 
 teachings of Christ. What to-day is 
 called metaphysical teaching was in the 
 Alcott period scoffed at as Transcen- 
 dentalism. 
 
 Mr. Alcott's strict adherence to a 
 vegetarian diet was also the topic of 
 ridicule from public and press, although 
 the Alcott children seemed to thrive on it, 
 and certainly, as four-year-old Louisa 
 once remarked, "Did pitty well for a 
 wegetable diet." 
 
 Louisa, in her journal, gives this sample 
 
 [183] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 of the vegetarian wafers they had at 
 Fruitlands : 
 
 Pluck your 
 body from 
 the orchard ; 
 do not snatch 
 it from the 
 shamble. 
 
 Without flesh 
 
 Vegetable 
 diet and 
 sweet repose. 
 Animal food 
 and night- 
 mare. 
 
 AppoUo eats no 
 flesh and has no 
 beard ; his voice is 
 melody itself. 
 
 Bronson Alcott constantly sought self- 
 improvement, and the shortcomings of 
 his early education were more than offset 
 by his untiring study. Realizing at one 
 time his lack of a vocabulary, he com- 
 ments in his journal, that to rectify this 
 [184] 
 
 diet there 
 could be no 
 blood-shed- 
 ding war. 
 
 SnufF is no less snufF 
 though accepted 
 from a gold box. 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 he has just bought two books, "A Sym- 
 posium of Melancholy," and "Hunter 
 on the Blood." 
 
 In their memoirs of Bronson Alcott, 
 F. B. Sanborn and W. T. Harris have 
 thus summed up his character : *'He was 
 the most filial son, the most faithful 
 lover, the most attached friend, the 
 most generous philanthropist of his time. 
 And when he died, he left fewer enemies 
 than any man of equal age can have 
 provoked or encountered in so long a 
 career." 
 
 In his study of childhood, Mr. Alcott 
 sought first to reach the mind, recogniz- 
 ing that as "the God within us." He 
 encouraged individuality in his children, 
 
 trying in their earliest years to make 
 [185] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 them think for themselves. All through 
 his teaching runs the boy's friendship 
 with God, and his sense of oneness with 
 his Maker was a part of the divine heri- 
 tage he passed on to his daughters. 
 
 He records in his diary a conversation 
 with Anna, who was four, and Louisa, 
 who was two, after reading to them the 
 story of Jesus, which he made so vital 
 that, given their choice, they asked for 
 it in preference to a fairy tale. Anna 
 remarked that Jesus did not really die. 
 *'They killed his body, but not his soul.'* 
 Her father asked: "What is the soul, 
 Anna ?" The little four-year-old re- 
 plied : "It's this inside of me that 
 makes me feel and think and love." 
 
 "And," said the father, "what became of 
 
 fi861 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 Jesus' soul?" Anna replied: "It went 
 back to God." Whereat little two-year- 
 old Louisa asked: "Why, isn't Dod 
 inside of me ?" 
 
 A note in the father's diary at the 
 birth of Elizabeth records "Anna's first 
 interview with her sister" (Elizabeth a 
 few hours old), and a day later comes 
 this record : "Anna and Louisa inter- 
 view their sister." Louisa, two years 
 old, wishes to have the baby sister put 
 in her arms, when four-year-old Anna 
 says warningly : "Treat her very care- 
 fully, Louisa, she comes from God." 
 What a beautiful thought to give a child 
 of the divine mystery of birth ! 
 
 Instead of asserting what he intended 
 
 to make of his children, Alcott encour- 
 
 [187I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 aged the child to make itself, beginning 
 when it was a small baby, treating it as 
 an individual, giving it opportunity to 
 use its mentality, instilling principles of 
 right and wrong by suggestion. Alcott 
 never commanded. "You don't wish 
 to do that," was his way, not exacting 
 blind obedience, but expressing his con- 
 viction that the child wished to do right. 
 
 To him, God was love. He had no 
 fear of God, for perfect love had cast out 
 fear. This same spirit was manifested 
 in all his children. To them the change 
 called Death was not to be dreaded ; 
 it was a stepping forward and upward. 
 
 This thought that death is not the 
 end, but the beginning, is expressed in 
 one of Louisa's most beautiful poems : 
 
 [i88] 
 
friendships and beliefs 
 
 Thoreau's Flute 
 
 We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead ; 
 
 His pipe hangs mute beside the river. 
 Around it wistful sunbeams quiver, 
 
 And Music's airy voice is fled. 
 Spring mourns as for untimely frost ; 
 
 The bluebird chants a requiem ; 
 The willow-blossom waits for him ; — 
 
 The Genius of the wood is lost." 
 
 Then from the flute, untouched by hands, 
 There came a low, harmonious breath ; 
 
 "For such as he there is no death — 
 His Hfe the eternal Hfe commands ; 
 
 Above man's aims his nature rose. 
 The wisdom of a just content 
 
 Made one small spot a continent 
 
 And tuned to poetry Hfe's prose. 
 [189] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 " Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild, 
 Swallow and aster, lake and pine, 
 To him grew human or divine, — 
 
 Fit mates for this large-hearted child. 
 Such homage Nature ne'er forgets, 
 And yearly on the coverlid 
 
 'Neath which her darling lieth hid 
 Will write his name in violets. 
 
 "To him no vain regrets belong, 
 
 Whose soul, that finer instrument, 
 Gave to the world no poor lament. 
 
 But wood-notes ever sweet and strong. 
 O lonely friend ! he still will be 
 
 A potent presence, though unseen ; — 
 Steadfast, sagacious and serene; 
 
 Seek not for him — he is with thee." 
 
 A visit to Sleepy Hollow^ suggests life, 
 
 not death. Giant trees stretch their 
 
 [190] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 branches over marble and granite monu- 
 ments, as if in benediction. "There is 
 no death, for God is Hfe," they seem to 
 say. For them there is no death. Emer- 
 son Hves to-day, the great philosopher ; 
 so do Thoreau, Hawthorne, Bronson 
 Alcott, and others of that mighty com- 
 pany. And who shall say that Louisa 
 Alcott is dead ? She lives in the hearts 
 of thousands, and will go on living 
 through the love they bear her. 
 
 Bronson Alcott was a true disciple of 
 Jesus Christ. He lived the example 
 set by his Master not alone in words 
 and thoughts, but in deeds. He lived 
 through and beyond misunderstanding, 
 ridicule, poverty, to see his teachings 
 
 respected, his name honored, to see the 
 
 1 191] 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 first glimmer of the new light which was 
 beginning to break over the world, the 
 sunrise at his own sunset. 
 
 This thought is embodied in the last 
 poem Louisa Alcott ever wrote : 
 
 To my Father. 
 On his Eighty-Sixth Birthday. 
 
 Dear Pilgrim, waiting patiently. 
 
 The long, long journey nearly done, 
 Beside the sacred stream that flows 
 
 Clear shining in the western sun ; 
 Look backward on the varied road 
 
 Your steadfast feet have trod, 
 From youth to age, through weal and woe, 
 
 Climbing forever nearer God. 
 
 Mountain and valley lie behind ; 
 
 The slough is crossed, the wicket passed ; 
 1 192] 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 
 
 Doubt and despair, sorrow and sin, 
 Giant and fiend, conquered at last. 
 
 Neglect is changed to honor now. 
 The heavy cross may be laid down ; 
 
 The white head wins and wears at length 
 The prophet's, not the martyr's crown. 
 
 Greatheart and Faithful gone before, 
 
 Brave Christiana, Mercy sweet, 
 Are shining ones who stand and wait 
 
 The weary wanderer to greet. 
 Patience and Love his handmaids are, 
 
 And till time brings release. 
 Christian may rest in that bright room 
 
 Whose windows open to the east. 
 
 The staff set by, the sandals off, 
 
 Still pondering the precious scroll, 
 Serene and strong he waits the call 
 [193I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 That frees and wings a happy soul. 
 Then beautiful as when it lured, 
 
 The boy's aspiring eyes, 
 Before the pilgrim's longing sight, 
 
 Shall the Celestial City rise. 
 
 1 194 J 
 
CHRONOLOGY 
 
 It has been particularly the aim of the 
 editors to lift these Little Women Letters 
 out of the biographical and into the narrative 
 class. For this reason dates have not been 
 used with any degree of liberality, and 
 chronological facts have been minimized. 
 
 However, as this is a story of the Alcott 
 family, and seekers for definite data will not 
 be lacking, a chronological summary is 
 herewith furnished : 
 
 Amos Bronson Alcott . . 1799-1888 
 married 
 
 Abby May 1800-1877 
 
 Their Children 
 
 Anna Bronson 1831-1893 
 
 Louisa May 1832-1888 
 
 I195I 
 
LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF ALCOTT 
 
 Elizabeth 183 5-1 858 
 
 Abby May 1 840-1 879 
 
 Anna Bronson married John Bridge Pratt, 
 i860. 
 
 Their Children 
 Frederick Alcott .... 1 863-1910 
 John Sewall 1865 
 
 Abby May married Ernst Nieriker, March, 
 
 1878. 
 
 Children 
 
 Louisa May 1879 
 
 Frederick Alcott Pratt 
 
 married 
 
 Jessica Cate 
 
 February, 1888 
 
 Their Children 
 
 Bronson Alcott .... 1889 
 
 Elizabeth Sewall .... 1891 
 [196 J 
 
CHRONOLOGY 
 
 Louisa May 1900 
 
 Frederick Woolsey . . . 1902 
 
 Elizabeth Sewall married Alfred RedReld 
 June, 191 3 
 
 * John Sewall Pratt 
 
 married 
 
 Eunie May Hunting 
 
 January, 1909 
 
 Children 
 
 Elverton Hunting 
 
 Louisa May Nieriker . . 1878 
 
 married 
 
 Ernst Rasim 
 
 Children 
 
 Ernestine 
 
 * John Sewall Pratt adopted in 1888 by Louisa May Alcott 
 and name changed to John Sewall Pratt Alcott. 
 1197] 
 

 A ,1 J * 
 
 .^^ 
 
 "OO 
 
 .^ -n. 
 
 
 
 o^:'--?/-^ 
 
 
 .X O 0^ 
 
 
"'oo'^ 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■.s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .,\\^^' ^^- 
 
 ■"■ .x\ « 1 ' « * 'i'^ 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 
 •^ ^■ 
 
 ,X>- '/>.. 
 
 ^r ^j^imi^'^ '- 
 
 c 
 
 0' 
 
 
 t -^ 
 
 ^\ 
 
 .■J>