Women Who Wrote, Louisa May Alcott
Women Who Wrote, Louisa May Alcott
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Women Who Wrote
Stories and Poems from Audacious Literary Mavens

Author: Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Gertrude Stein, Phillis Wheatley

Narrator: Jude Mason, Chloe Dolandis, Tyra Kennedy

Unabridged: 7 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Published: 06/09/2020

Synopsis

Meet the women who wrote.  They wrote against all odds. Some wrote defiantly; some wrote desperately. Some wrote while trapped within the confines of status and wealth. Some wrote hand-to-mouth in abject poverty. Some wrote trapped in a room of their father’s house, and some went in search of a room of their own. They had lovers and families. They were sometimes lonely. Many wrote anonymously or under a pseudonym for a world not yet ready for their genius and talent.  We know many of their names—Austen and Alcott, Brontë and Browning, Wheatley and Woolf—though some may be less familiar.  They are here, waiting to introduce themselves. They marched through the world one by one or in small sisterhoods, speaking to each other and to us over distances of place and time. Pushing back against the boundaries meant to keep us in our place, they carved enough space for themselves to write. They made space for us to follow. Here they are gathered together, an army of women who wrote and an arsenal of words to inspire us. They walk with us as we forge our own paths forward.    These women wrote to change the world. The perfect keepsake gift for the reader in your lifeAnthology of stories and poemsBook length: approximately 90,000 words

About Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters—Anna, Elizabeth, and May—were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.

Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson's library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at Hillside. Like her character Jo March from Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy.

For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination, and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. At age fifteen, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed to make something of herself. Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa remained determined; whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.

Louisa's career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was twenty-two, her first book, Flower Fables, was published. Another milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches, which was based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.

When Louisa was thirty-five, her publisher asked her to write a book for girls. Thus, she wrote Little Women, which is based on Louisa and her sisters' coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. Jo March was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality; a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype that was then prevalent in children's fiction.

In all, Louisa published over thirty books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Becky on August 27, 2020

So this is basically a collection of short stories and poems from various female authors. There is a brief biography about each woman but it's pretty short, so the focus of this is really on their work and not on their lives (given the description of the book I was expecting more biography, but it w......more

Goodreads review by Rikke on March 25, 2021

A wonderful collection of short stories and poetry by some of the history's most acclaimed writers. Louisa May Alcott's fairy tales were a special treat – and I think I'm inspired to go hunting for more, which may be the ultimate success criteria for a collection such as this; making readers hungry......more

Goodreads review by Kier Scrivener on November 03, 2023

My enjoyment reading this was unmatched. I love the biographies, the glimpses into the authors known and unknown. The way we have viewed them, forgotten them and revived them. I loved that we had many ubiquitous female authors and ones of less prominence. I also enjoyed the choice to give us poetry......more

Goodreads review by Mia on December 29, 2024

I only wish the biography sections were longer! We got very little details about their lives and while it didn’t have to be chapters long I would’ve liked at least 10 pages on the authors themselves!......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on November 08, 2023

I love this collection, both stories and poems, to express why and how women wrote. They paved the road for future female authors and exposed the contradictions and inferior treatment of women. They also wrote with fire!!! It’s a beautiful collection of my favorites! It was a gift from a student, an......more

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