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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