Louisa
May Alcott (November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888) was an American novelist,
short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868). Alcott's family suffered from
financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an
early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical
success for her writing in the 1860s. Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home,
Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts,
and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three
sisters, Abigail May Alcott
Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott,
and Anna Alcott Pratt. The
novel was well-received at the time and is still a popular children's novel today. It has been adapted to film
several times.
Writer-director
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) has crafted a Little Women (2019) that draws on both
the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott, and unfolds as the
author's alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life. In
Gerwig's take, the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women each
determined to live life on her own terms -- is both timeless and timely.
Portraying Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth March, the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma
Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, with Timothée Chalamet as their neighbor
Laurie, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March.
George Cukor
directed this classic adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's sentimental novel with
a shimmering lavishness that is a prime example of the classic Hollywood (1933).
The story concerns the lives of four New England sisters -- Jo (Katharine
Hepburn), Amy (Joan Bennett), Meg (Frances Dee), and Beth (Jean Parker) --
during the time of the Civil War. Jo desires to leave home to become a writer,
but decides to stay to help the family. But Meg announces her plans to get
married, so Jo leaves for New York City. As she settles down to a writing
career, she meets Professor Fritz Bhaer (Paul Lukas), who helps her with her
work. While Jo is away, Amy falls in love and marries Jo's old flame Laurie
Laurence (Douglass Montgomery). But Jo is forced to return to New England when
she discovers Beth is dying. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
Alcott
was an abolitionist and
a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She
died from a stroke, two days after her father died, in Boston on March 6, 1888.
