Louisa May Alcott

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.