Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

Louisa May Alcott is best known for her creation of the classic work "Little Women", the story of four sisters growing up in a New England town during the mid 1800s.

Alcott's father, Bronson, was a philosopher and educational reformer whose idealistic projects kept the family in poverty; financial security did not come until "Little Women". However, the Alcott family was rich in their friends, which included such noted figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Like her father, Alcott practiced her beliefs, working for the right of women to vote and for the temperance (anti-drinking) movement. The March sisters--Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy-- have been immortalized in the movies as well; the most famous "Jo" was Katherine Hepburn.