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The beloved author of Little Women was torn between pleasing her idealistic father and planting her feet in the material world. Now, Louisa May Alcott's name is known universally; yet, during her youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson--an eminent teacher, lecturer, and friend of Emerson and Thoreau. Willful and exuberant, Louisa flew in the face of all her father's theories of child rearing. She, in turn, could not understand the frugal life Bronson preached, which reached its epitome in the failed utopian community of Fruitlands. In a family that insisted on self-denial and spiritual striving, Louisa dreamed of wealth and fame. At the same time, like most daughters, she wanted her father's approval. This story of their tense yet loving relationship adds dimensions to Louisa's life, her work, and the relationships of fathers and daughters.--From publisher description.… (more)
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Matteson gives a full background and exploration of the life and influences on
Having read other biographies (excellent ones) of Louisa May Alcott, I was wondering what new information this bio would provide. But Matteson's approach to Louisa's life and literary influences does explore areas which other biographers have not covered, and Matteson ties together his research and his theories into a fresh and exciting story.
Most importantly, I felt that Matteson did a wonderful job of sympathizing with his subject's human failings without becoming an apologist or providing justifications for the subject's actions. This is especially hard given the dual nature of this biography, and the fact that the two subjects were sometimes in conflict with one another. Matteson fearlessly explored places where his subjects were less than heroic. But he always did so respectfully and with an eye to a better understanding, rather than to place blame or cast judgment.
I would highly recommend this biography to anyone interested in Alcott, the Transcendentalist Philosophy, American Writers, Feminist History, or in knowing more about the author of Little Women. The writing is absolutely accessible to those outside of academia, without talking down to anyone.
But leaving that aside, Matteson does great work in this book. It's a dual biography of Louisa and her father Bronson (they died a mere three days apart), who are both fascinating characters. Matteson has obviously done a lot of research, but he wears it lightly. He writes well; the book was simply a joy to read. I only wish I'd read it before we visited the Alcott house a couple of years ago.
Pulitzer Prize - Winner
Louisa May Alcott is known universally. Yet during Louisa's youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson, an eminent teacher and a friend of Emerson and Thoreau. He desired perfection, for the world and from his family. Louisa challenged him with
Personally, I never has any interest in Transcendentalism (I have only recently read Philip Gura's excellent American Transcendentalism), because it seemed to me that so many Transcendentalists were dependent fools, with Bronson Alcott, then and now, as Exhibit #1. (I haven't the heart to tell my friends, who admire some of them, what I think about the others. I don't want them falling dead at my feet from a stroke, or hitting me over the head with their chair.) I've read several of Louisa May Alcott's books, including Little Women, which I enjoyed, but since I didn't identify at all with Jo, I seem to be an outlier (again.)
Bronson may have meant well, but he generally didn't do well. My prime example is that having moved his family to Fruitlands, and leaving the domestic work to Abigail, and the children, except for the brief period when Anna Page was there, and occasional help from her aunt, Hannah Robie. So much for the oral feminism that was part of what attracted Abigail to Bronson in the first place. Then, Bronson, the farmer's son, and the rest of the men, went off leaving the crop in the field, and it was left to Abigail and the children to save it in the face of a storm.
Pictures, generally of high quality, of many places and people are interwoven with the text, a system that I find preferable to an independent section of plates, if all of the illustrations are black and white. There is both a bibliography and an extensive section of bibliographical notes. It used to be common for the title of a chapter to run along the top of the pages, while the notes contained only the chapter number. I am glad to see that the fault is NOT repeated here. There is also a detailed index; I didn't notice any flaws while using it.
I'm happy to see that Matteson also wrote a biography of Margaret Fuller, the next Transcendentalist that I intend to check out.
Matteson did a great job writing a double biography, pulling
I have even more respect for Louisa after reading about her lifelong struggle with "moods," and the therapeutic poisoning she suffered when serving as a Civil War nurse in Washington, D.C. After six weeks, she was too sick to continue and was sent home to recover, but never again to feel well. And yet she soldiered on, intent on making her writing pay the bills that her father seemed unable and unwilling to pay with his own labor. Even her great novel, Little Women, was something she wrote at her publisher's request. She was never able to produce her masterpiece for adults.
In this dual biography of Bronson and his famous daughter, John Matteson draws on the wealth of writings, including personal journals and letters, of the Alcott family to illuminate not just two lives but their changing relationship. Matteson does occasionally venture a little too far in his surmising (I noted a passage where he took Louisa's love for Jane Eyre as potentially linked to her fascination with the idea of mental health being hereditary), and tends to see a lot more autobiography in Louisa's fiction that I thought was perhaps warranted. Still, this well-researched, Pulitzer-prize winning book is a thorough and entertaining read, illuminating these two fascinating people in light of their relationship which each other. Born on the same day 33 years apart and dying within days of each other, Bronson and Louisa may not have always seen eye to eye, but they clearly loved each other and grew in mutual respect over the years. Well worth reading for anyone interested in literary history, Massachusetts history, or Transcendentalists.