Writer. Born November 29, 1832, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the second of four daughters of Amos Bronson Alcott, a noted transcendentalist philosopher and educator, and Abigail May, a descendant of one of Boston’s more prominent families.
Though she produced adult novels and stories as well, Alcott is most celebrated for her children’s fiction, which includes the eight novels grouped under the Little Women series. Autobiographical in nature, Alcott’s Little Women books were modeled after her parents and sisters as well as friends and neighbors in her native New England, and she is credited with being a pioneer in the creation of realistic fiction for children. Her novels are noted for their perceptive and highly entertaining accounts of childhood, for her portrayal of children as multi-dimensional, thinking individuals, and for her lively and warm depictions of family life. Alcott enjoyed widespread popularity in her lifetime as a children’s author, while today books like Little Women and Little Men—which have been translated into numerous foreign languages—are still read and appreciated by children around the world.
