Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen is a meticulously researched—and interesting—biography. I'll present a few passages and events I found interesting and a section on what I found to be the most fascinating thing in the book. Curiously enough, it turns out to be medical.
Passages and/or events:
1) "… her imagination was her greatest comfort, and her refuge even in her last days, when she wrote in her journal, 'Lived in my mind where I can generally find amusement…. A happy world to go into when the real one is too dull or hard.'" (page 5) And at that point I identified and fell in love with Louisa May Alcott. But then, I have always been a fan.
2) Louisa May Alcott and other members of her family were among the early abolitionists and activists for women's rights. Her concern about abolition began early when as a child she had been playing with a hoop near a river, lost control, and went into the river to retrieve her toy. An undertow caught and pulled her under. A young black boy pulled her out. Louisa's father, a teacher, placed the boy in his school. Soon other parents heard of their children attending school with a black child and threatened to pull their children out. Bronson Alcott would have no part of that. The boy remained enrolled, the other parents acted on their threat, and school closed. (pages 50-51) One has to admire such devotion to principle—even if the man's family was hungry and close to homeless.
3) Not surprisingly, Abby Alcott—Bronson's life, Louisa's mother—kept a journal. At one point, annoyed with Bronson for being incapable/unwilling to support his family, Abby entered the following complaint about her husband: "'Why so much talk, talk, talk; so little give!' and 'Why are men icebergs when beloved by ardent natures and surrounded by love-giving and life-devoted beings.'" (page 63) Who says times have changed?
4) And much, much later: "'A philosopher is a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes, trying to haul them down.' Abby saw it in terms of male and female: 'how naturally man's speech seems to be in the region of the head, and the woman was in the pain and the heart and affections.'" (page 73) Wow! And that was way before 1850.
5) A clue to what Louisa May Alcott might have been like can be based on another entry in Abby's journal while speaking about a group of men who had visited her husband . "'The gentlemen discussed the overthrow of state government and the errors of all human government.' Louisa, exposed to this line of thought nearly every day, would grow up to regard civil law as more in need of reform than enforcement, and as a poor representation of a higher law that held all people equal status and rights." (page 82) Clearly the world needs more Louisa May Alcotts.
THE SERIES OF EVENTS THAT TRULY SURPRISED ME
Louisa May Alcott died in 1888, and in 2001 was diagnosed to have died of lupus. I found the events that led to that diagnosis absolutely fascinating, and, as you probably know, to me most things medical are not fascinating.
It turns out that during the Civil War Louisa May Alcott worked as a nurse in a hospital in Washington DC. During that time she contracted typhoid pneumonia, a disease then treated with calomel, which at the time was believed to leave a residue of mercury in the body. When, years later, Louisa began to feel pain in her legs, it was believed to be the result of mercury. Through out the rest of her life the pain worsened and ultimately in 1888 she died of a stroke.
Meanwhile, back in 1870 while on a trip to Europe, Louisa had a portrait made while she was visiting Italy. No one really liked the portrait because it showed up a sunburn below her eyes and across her nose. In a sequel to Little Women, Jo's Boys, Jo/Louisa had the painting made, disliked it and hung it behind a door.
Onward to 2001. Drs. Norbert Hirschhorn and Ian Greaves were studying theories about mercury poisoning that might have led to the death of Abraham Lincoln. In their minds facts were not adding up. Then they learned that Louisa May Alcott had died with some of the same problems. The facts in her case were not adding up either, so the doctors started looking for some autoimmune disease that might explain the similarities in both cases. For her they narrowed the field down to syphilis and lupus. Assuming syphilis was highly unlikely, they settled on lupus. Could they prove it?
A short time after deciding on lupus as the candidate, Dr. Hirshhorn was visiting Orchard House (the Alcott home), saw the painting and recognized the sunburn as butterfly rash, an early indication of lupus.
Cool, huh?
Overall recommendation? Sure, especially for those who were Little Women fans when they were growing up.
