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     LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
     HER
     Life, Letters, and Journals.

     EDITED BY
     EDNAH D. CHENEY

     BOSTON
     LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
     1898




     _Copyright, 1889_,
     BY J. S. P. ALCOTT.

     UNIVERSITY PRESS:
     JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.




     TO
     MRS. ANNA B. PRATT,
     THE SOLE SURVIVING SISTER OF LOUISA M. ALCOTT, AND HER
     NEVER-FAILING HELP, COMFORTER, AND FRIEND
     FROM BIRTH TO DEATH,

     This Memoir
     IS RESPECTFULLY AND TENDERLY DEDICATED,
     BY
     EDNAH D. CHENEY.

     JAMAICA PLAIN,
     June, 1889.




  [Illustration: Portrait of Miss Alcott]




INTRODUCTION.


Louisa May Alcott is universally recognized as the greatest and most
popular story-teller for children in her generation. She has known the
way to the hearts of young people, not only in her own class, or even
country, but in every condition of life, and in many foreign lands.
Plato says, "Beware of those who teach fables to children;" and it is
impossible to estimate the influence which the popular writer of
fiction has over the audience he wins to listen to his tales. The
preacher, the teacher, the didactic writer find their audience in
hours of strength, with critical faculties all alive, to question
their propositions and refute their arguments. The novelist comes to
us in the intervals of recreation and relaxation, and by his seductive
powers of imagination and sentiment takes possession of the fancy and
the heart before judgment and reason are aroused to defend the
citadel. It well becomes us, then, who would guard young minds from
subtle temptations, to study the character of those works which charm
and delight the children.

Of no author can it be more truly said than of Louisa Alcott that her
works are a revelation of herself. She rarely sought for the material
of her stories in old chronicles, or foreign adventures. Her capital
was her own life and experiences and those of others directly about
her; and her own well-remembered girlish frolics and fancies were sure
to find responsive enjoyment in the minds of other girls.

It is therefore impossible to understand Miss Alcott's works fully
without a knowledge of her own life and experiences. By inheritance
and education she had rich and peculiar gifts; and her life was one of
rare advantages, as well as of trying difficulties. Herself of the
most true and frank nature, she has given us the opportunity of
knowing her without disguise; and it is thus that I shall try to
portray her, showing what influences acted upon her through life, and
how faithfully and fully she performed whatever duties circumstances
laid upon her. Fortunately I can let her speak mainly for herself.

Miss Alcott revised her journals at different times during her later
life, striking out what was too personal for other eyes than her own,
and destroying a great deal which would doubtless have proved very
interesting.

The small number of letters given will undoubtedly be a
disappointment. Miss Alcott wished to have most of her letters
destroyed, and her sister respected her wishes. She was not a
voluminous correspondent; she did not encourage many intimacies, and
she seldom wrote letters except to her family, unless in reference to
some purpose she had strongly at heart. Writing was her constant
occupation, and she was not tempted to indulge in it as a recreation.
Her letters are brief, and strictly to the point, but always
characteristic in feeling and expression; and, even at the risk of the
repetition of matter contained in her journals or her books, I shall
give copious extracts from such as have come into my hands.

     E. D. C.
     JAMAICA PLAIN, Mass., 1889.




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


                                             PAGE

     INTRODUCTION                             iii

     CHAPTER.

        I. GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE             11
       II. CHILDHOOD                           16
      III. FRUITLANDS                          32