In the Introduction of Louisa May Alcott: A Biography, author Madeleine B. Stern states that “Louisa May Alcott was throughout her life a professional author skilled in creation and the re-creation implicit in revision.”[16] Alcott's works borrowed “as source material episodes from her life, her observations, her travels, her experiences, [and] her reading.”[17] Alcott’s legacy remains in her depiction of life and her devotion to family.[18] Her overall work is considered, “neither of Hell nor of Heaven, but of a multitude of stories in a variety of literary genres, ranging from fairy tales to realistic war sketches, from sensation thrillers to domestic sagas.”[19]