Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography

by Susan Cheever

Louisa May Alcott never intended to write Little Women . She had dismissed her publisher’s pleas for such a novel. Written out of necessity to support her family, the book had an astounding success that changed her life, a life which turned out very differently from that of her beloved heroine Jo March. In Louisa May Alcott, Susan Cheever, the acclaimed author of American Bloomsbury, returns to Concord, Massachusetts, to explore the life of one of its most iconic residents. Based on extensive research, journals, and correspondence, Cheever’s biography chronicles all aspects of Alcott’s life, from the fateful meeting of her parents to her death, just two days after that of her father. She details Bronson Alcott’s stalwart educational vision, which led the Alcotts to relocate each time his progressive teaching went sour; her unsuccessful early attempts at serious literature, including Moods , which Henry James panned; her time as a Civil War nurse, when she contracted pneumonia and was treated with mercury-laden calomel, which would affect her health for the rest of her life; and her vibrant intellectual circle of writers and reformers, idealists who led the charge in support of antislavery, temperance, and women’s rights. Alcott’s independence defied the conventional wisdom, and her personal choices and literary legacy continue to inspire generations of women. A fan of Little Women from the age of twelve, and a distinguished author in her own right, Cheever brings a unique perspective to Louisa May Alcott’s life as a woman, a daughter, and a working writer.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, Literature, American

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 2010

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well for the most part and rather sadly, Susan Cheever's 2010 Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography has been a rather disappointing and tedious slog of a reading experience (and definitely not all that enlightening and novel either, since there is indeed nothing textually contained about Louisa May Alcott’s life in Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography which I did not already know from my perusals of previously encountered Louisa May Alcott biographies).

Sure, Susan Cheever provides the basics of Louisa May Alcott’s life in Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography (from birth to death) and I of course and naturally also hugely appreciate that Cheever does not ever try to make Bronson Alcott into some kind of misunderstood idealist, that she depicts Louisa May Alcott’s father critically and often with the for me required and necessary amount of condemnation, showing for example Bronson Alcott’s multiple and all encompassing failures as a husband and father and that with regard to both his daughter Louisa and his wife Abigail, Bronson Alcott obviously had some pretty misogynistic and ethnically stereotyping attitudes (inferiority of women, that his daughter’s writing was automatically lesser to his own, that Bronson Alcott’s blond hair, blue eyes and very light complexion somehow was equally supposed to render him superior and more angelic than his wife and daughter with their darker hair, eyes and swarthier complexions).

But albeit that in Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography the basics of Louisa May Alcott’s life have been factually and decently enough presented by a Susan Cheever, I actually and personally would not really consider Cheever’s presented text all that successful as a bona fide biography.

For one, Susan Cheever spends so much of her textual time in Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography writing about and describing in meticulous detail individuals other than Louisa May Alcott that the latter’s life, that Louisa’s thoughts and her own story often seems to become lost in the shuffle so to speak, that indeed, I am while reading Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography often feeling that the author, that Susan Cheever seems considerably more interested in providing details about Abigail and Bronson Alcott, about Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne etc. etc. than about Louisa May Alcott (to the point that even though this book is supposed to feature Louisa May Alcott as the prime character, is supposed to be a biography specifically about her, well, and at least for me, throughout Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography Louisa May Alcott herself generally feels more than a bit secondary at best).

And for two, I personally do find the copious amounts of author musings and interjections in Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography quite distracting and rather majorly annoying. Because when I am reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott, I want and need only the facts of Ms. Alcott’s life and am not really interested in Susan Cheever’s personal philosophies and experiences with for example Little Women and it’s sequels. So yes indeed, that Susan Cheever really and in my humble opinion inserts way way too much of herself into Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography, this has definitely not only quite negatively affected my reading pleasure, it has also forced me to resort to skimming in order to complete reading Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography without silently screaming in frustration (and not to mention that the niggling little errors encountered, like for example in the chapter on Fruitlands Susan Cheever making Lizzie and not May into the youngest of the Alcott sisters, this is not indeed yet another reason why for me Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography is only two stars and not all that much recommended).

[Alexandra Michaelides · Rating 2 out of 5]

Louisa May Alcott lived a fascinating life, and this comes through in Susan Cheever's biography, yet the book is a let down. Perhaps the problem with the book is it's subtitle, "a personal biography." Most of the book isn't a "personal biography," whatever that means, but occasionally Cheever interjects tidbits about herself, makes grand generalizations about women and life, that distract from the narrative of the biography. While bias is unavoidable, I felt that Cheever's voice was too strong and too present. But reading this has pointed me to another biography on LMA that I intend on reading at some point, Eden's Outcasts.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book. There was so much information in it that I really appreciated about Louisa and her life. Lots of information that I didn’t know and it was very interesting. My issues were some of the tangents the author would go on. Going into more depth than necessary about other things other than the Alcott’s. I think it’s important to know what was going on in the states and in the world during her life, but they drag on too long. In more places than one the author would go on and on about the sanitary conditions in hospitals and how doctors didn’t wash their hands. Lots of historical information about the Civil War that wasn’t really necessary in the biography. And it’s not so much that the information was shared, but how much unnecessary detail she went into. The comparison between the houses in Massachusetts and Rome was just seemed to drag on. Only in the book because Louisa was visiting Rome. She would also insert her own thoughts about what was going on during Louisa’s time and how things look in our current time. And, pondering what it is like to be an author and then pondering what it is like to be a biographer. I just felt like the author inserted herself too much into this biography as opposed to just letting Louisa’s life tell the story.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downloaded this audiobook from my library not so much because I wanted to hear about the life of Louisa May Alcott as much as I wanted to hear what it was like to grow up surrounded by people like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott,
William Ellery Channing and Henry James. Probably 80% of the book was devoted to her friends, families, and homes rather than about her life.

Apparently, Louisa developed a lifetime crush on Emerson. Who wouldn't? The next door neighbor in Little Women, Laurie, is partially based on him and partially based on a young man that Louisa met during her European travels. Her European travels were also fodder for Henry James' Daisy Miller (which I recently read and didn't really care for).

The author of this biography really had it in for Louisa's father, Bronson Alcott. Louisa based her most popular novel, Little Women, on her own family, and the father is mostly absent, fighting in the civil war. When I read Geraldine Brooks' telling of the father's tale in March, I came away feeling a little sorry for pathetic Bronson Alcott. But Susan Cheever paints him as a silly dreamer who couldn't provide for his family and who lived off of dreams and Emerson's inheritance. She seems to have no respect for him whatsoever. Then again, I found it odd that the family was willing to live off of apples and bread rather than get a job that was "beneath them". They wanted to teach, write, or lecture, but they'd rather live in utter destitution than do anything else.

As I child, I was utterly fascinated with the character of Jo in Little Women because she was me in so many ways. I wrote constantly, got permission to publish impromptu newspapers at school with a friend of mine, and got my classmates to act in silly plays that my friend and I had written. It's interesting to see that Louisa May Alcott did much of the same as a child, and I have to wonder if I would have kept it up like Louisa did into adulthood with more encouragement and less to do with my time in a more organic world with less distractions to draw me away.

Oh, and did I mention that she saw Charles Dickens speaking on his lecture circuit?

Anyhow, interesting biography, but it could have been better.

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for all fans of Louisa May Alcott!
Well-researched biography of one of the most beloved writers of all time. I learned many facts about Louisa, her writing, and her family that I did not know before. This could have been a dry, textbook-like work, but was not. This was, in part, the way the author would incorporate her own voice about her visits to Orchard House and other places into the text. It felt like I had a fellow Alcott-lover friend speaking to me at times!

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a sucker for a Louisa May Alcott biography. This one, however, was not very good. It did not have a very good sense of chronology (especially in LMA's later years) and you would think she only wrote three books. The Author also never lets you forget that she is the child of a famous author as well. She also claims this is "a personal biography", and that she spent a lot of time with original letters and diaries, but it really doesn't appear so from the text, which often seems to be a summary of other earlier, and better biographies.

[Out of the Bex · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent exploration into the life of Alcott, but with perhaps a bit too much commentary from the author.

Also to note, this book is not solely about Louisa but rather focuses a great deal on the famed persons that surrounded her life and the social climates of the time.

The writing style itself is extremely approachable in nature and I hold no qualms about the accessibility of the story Cheever wove about a real life celebrity whose work so many of us adore.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this while listening to an audio version of Little Women, which made for a great experience for both books. "What is the connection of fictional characters to the writer and to the people in the world around the writer?" Cheever asks, a pertinent question for any biography of Louisa May Alcott (whatever the subtitle). Are the Alcotts the Marches, are the Marches the Alcotts? Readers for 150 years have been asking this, and Cheever's answer at least is that they are, and they aren't, and while never painstakingly (this isn't ever that kind of book), she makes us (gradually?) aware that Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy aren't exactly Anna, Louisa, Lizzie and May. What I liked about this book is how Cheever went off the track every so often, to write about writing, or family, or sometimes the world and history in which Louisa May Alcott lived and worked (never quite enough of the latter for my taste though). She writes some strong thoughts about the art of biography ("Good biography scrupulously sticks to the facts. These facts are found in libraries and archives where journals and letters are kept—primary sources, and in other biographies and published books—secondary sources. Yet in spite of this necessary limitation, in spite of the facts, every biography has a story imposed on the facts by the biographer"). In the end though, Cheever is asking herself and us this: "To me the story of Louisa May Alcott is the story of how a woman finds her place in the world. How can women choose between love and work, or should they gamble that they can have both?" This idea is flushed out again and again; you can be the judge if Cheever succeeded in telling that particular story (no spoilers here). I have a few quibbly carps; some of the writing is a bit sloppy - some repetitive phrasing, a character introduced to us twice. Don't let those carps keep you from reading the book particularly if you a lover of the novel (or movie versions, I was in that camp until now!).

[Marek · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 - both my library and nearest Half Price Books have this under "Alcott" in the fiction section. It's by Cheever and non-fiction.

2 - There are a lot of really irrelevant to Alcott but not the times historical facts in here that are definitely geared towards a reader who didn't pay attention in US History at all. It's a little patronizing sometimes and not gracefully done, they're all rather clunkily inserted.

3 - The author makes a lot of parallels between her and Alcott's life and in a way that seems to grab for attention.

4 - There are some other, historical parallels in here that detract and distract from the point.

5 - Cheever will go on about a historical tidbit, leave you wondering why it's there and then you connect it awhile later and feel like the flow of things got badly dropped.

Forced myself to finish this.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read most of this, but it became one of the worst biographies I've read. Cheever kept putting her own opinions and thoughts into the narrative. I guess by "personal biography" the author meant a bit of biography with a boatload of personal opinions.

[Loni Spendlove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susan Cheever did her homework for this biography of the Author of American Girl's most beloved book, Little Women, but sometimes I felt like she jumped to conclusions that weren't documented, only speculated upon. There were a lot of details of the time period that I found interesting, but I felt like Louisa May Alcotts life was looked at through the purple-colored glasses of the 21st Century.

(Caution...just set up my soapbox) This is what makes me frustrated about our day: WHY is everything viewed through sexuality or carnal nature? Why do people "identify" themselves by their sexual preference? I certainly wouldn't dream of saying "I'm a heterosexual woman who lives in a monogamous relationship with the goal of propagating the species."

Before I go too far, let me say this book isn't all about L.M. Alcott's sexuality, but there seems to be a lot of "theory" about why she struggled to fit into the mold of women in the 1800's. I admire that she was strong-willed, forward thinking, independent and fiercely loyal to her family. Admittedly, it was frowned upon to be an "old maid", but I choose to believe that Alcott was searching for something more than what was offered in those days...and not just in terms of physical fulfillment.

Many people search for higher meaning in their lives and fight for the ideals they cherish. Alcott extolled the family in her most successful writing and as we hope to leave the world better than we found it, I think she did, too. Perhaps this was why she didn't conform to the mold of subservient-domestic-non-voting-wife but sought to find happiness in serving, writing and creative expression.

Stepping off the soapbox, I did enjoy reading the biographical insights that were gathered from the extensive research of Susan Cheever. And I am excited to visit Boston and Concord with a better understanding of it's history and one of it's most famous residents!

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 🌟

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a interesting book about Louisa may Alcott

[Mary Fusoni · Rating 1 out of 5]

I plan to visit Orchard House soon so wanted to get some background on Louisa May Alcott, the author of my favorite childhood book. So I persevered to the end of this terrible book, even though there was something irritating on almost every page. The book reads like a first draft that was untouched by an editor. The language is unbearably awkward, there are numerous punctuation errors, and the book is riddled with non sequiturs. As others have noted, Cheever's musings often feel intrusive and irrelevant. (Particularly irksome are her thoughts and generalizations about writers and writing.) Furthermore, from reading reviews elsewhere I gleaned that there are a number of factual errors. Cheever also repeats certain bits far too often; the dozen or more references to a publisher telling a young Louisa to "stick to your teaching" come to mind immediately.

Here's one sentence that combines awkward prose, bad punctuation, and intrusive musing: "My own father wrote some of his best stories in a cheap tent, which he had pitched, on the lawn when the house was filled with his family and friends." And how about these two sentences about Louisa's Civil War nursing: "Alcott helped feed them from trays of bread, meat, soup, and coffee that appeared from the kitchen. 'Great trays of bread, meat, soup, and coffee appeared,' she wrote….” Seriously, was there an editor for this book?

The extraordinary life of Louisa May Alcott deserves far more respectful treatment. Any of the several other available biographies have to be better than Cheever's. If good writing matters to you, go elsewhere for your Alcott information.

[Margaret Heller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is somewhere between a 2 and a 3. I found parts of this really fascinating and compelling for reasons I don't care to go into. (I get the feeling I am crazy in all the same ways as Louisa May Alcott). But the historiography and frankly, the history in some places, is problematic. Two examples: she constantly mentions that doctors didn't wash their hands, but she never mentions Semmelweis and also gives the impression that all surgery was a death sentence. She also relates the story of the invention of the telephone (the one with Bell and Watson and the battery acid) in a way that I have never heard before and in a way that only loosely illustrates the point she was trying to make.

Susan Cheever really likes to write about the experience of writing, and also one gets the sense that she still has *plenty* of issues to work out about her own well-known father. So Alcott is a natural subject for her--the "personal history" is a lot of speculation about motivations, character,and psychological state (though with many caveats about the impossibility of truly knowing these things). There have been a zillion books written about her, and I am not sure this is the first one I would choose. But it's kind of interesting.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was published in 2010 so there are several biographies already out there and I enjoyed that this author talked about those while writing this one. She actually talked to the reader which I liked. She also talked about what was going on in history during this time period to get a better understanding of things. All the biographies of LMA were written after her death so they are all written by combing through letters. Different biographers take the sentences differently, which is interesting. Everyone has their own theories. Of course Louisa also burned a lot of her diary and letters and wanted Anna to burn everything after her death. Luckily Anna did not do that. When Louisa died the only family she had left was her sister Anna, Anna's two sons, and her sister May's daughter Lulu. Louisa raised Lulu after May's death until she herself died. May's husband then took Lulu back to Switzerland. I found it very sad that the Alcotts were not spoken about to Lulu. She had to read a biography of LMA to know the story of her aunt. One of my favorite things about LMA was that when women could finally vote on something in Concord, MA, the school board election, LMA was first to register to vote and I believe first to actually vote. She was very dismayed that other women did not seem to care and register as well.

-As a daughter, she never spoke a word against her father. As a writer, she expressed her feelings in a far more effective and literary way. She left him out of her masterpiece. (Ouch!)

-Even autobiography is storytelling; facts chosen can manipulate the narrative as powerfully as facts imagined manipulate the narrative of a fictional story.

-The Shakers' belief in celibacy is one reason why the once-thriving Shaker communities of New England are no longer with us. (Duh!)

-...but in the 1840s women were as eager to work for justice at home as they were to fight for justice in the South.

[Kiri Dawn]

Made it 54% before returning to library. Author was way too focused on Alcott’s father rather than the author herself. And I was bored.

Having nothing to do with why I DNF’d but interesting to remember: tried to insert some modern feminism into Alcott’s work that I personally just don’t see. She was trying a little too hard.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book held my attention and I was glad to learn something more about Alcott and her milieu. I’m guessing there’s a much better biography out there but this is a serviceable introduction to the woman. I would have liked to learn more about her books but this was primarily biographical. I guess I was unrealistically hoping for something as good as the recent biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie Fires. And I also have to say her ee cummings book was better.

[Elliot A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this biography a few years back and I can't really recall why I decided to check out this particular book at the book store, but it caught my attention and raised my interest from the first chapter.

The genre of biography is not as familiar to me; however, I found the author's execution of disclosing facts very informational and also entertaining. There was a slow moving portion at the beginning of the book that focuses more on Alcott's father, but that was necessary in order to grasp the full character of Alcott herself.

Overall, I enjoyed the author's talent for telling historical facts without seeming to rattle them off like a dry history lesson and I would recommend this book to anyone, who is interested in learning more about Alcott.

ElliotScribbles

[Carolyn Di Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who has ever loved Little Women, will adore this biography. Susan Cheever, author of a book I previously read, American Bloomsbury, has written a wonderful, well-researched book on one of my childhood's best-loved writers. Ms. Cheever tells of Alcott's journey, difficult as it may have been, with the eyes of a fan. This is not a snarky, "I can't understand her fame" books. I am going to re-read my old favorite Alcott books, beginning tonight. One is never too old for a good story.
I highly recommend!

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review on my book blog: http://quirkyreader.livejournal.com/2...

[Lisa (lblovesbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant biography of an amazing woman. Can't wait to read more!

[Zeeba Neighba · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read ‘A Personal Biography’ on the cover, I assumed it would focus on Louisa as an individual. Instead, I found myself reading about every other person she came into contact with.
An exaggeration, but the point remains. I believe I could have easily understood the religious and spiritual undertones of Alcott’s life without as much information regarding her Father.

That being said, I enjoyed reading this. Little Women has proved time and time again to be the most meaningful book of fiction in my life. I previously thought that Louisa was, in all ways possible, Jo March. It is bittersweet to know that she was no more Jo March than I am.

Cheever does an accurate job exploring the sincerity and complexity of Alcott’s writings, comparing and contrasting them with modern society and the Concord of the 19th century in a way that’s easy to follow. I found Cheevers tangents on writing as a form of passionate fever, not just a hobby or an industry, to be interesting and relatable in a variety of ways.

Overall, I felt it was worth my time. I long to visit Concord and see the sites discussed in the book, and visit the esteemed Orchard House, where Alcott built one of the most famous fictitious families in American History.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well written bio on Louisa May. I learned a lot and for the most part I found the author objective and refreshing in her approach to studying a person of the past (for a modern author).

My only issue is that she went off on a few tangents that were a bit unrelated to the subject at hand and she inserted her opinion a bit much on some historical issues. For example: she made the statement that (and I am paraphrasing) women were the second-most (after slaves) oppressed people in America in the 19th century. I disagree. I believe that women had it way better than the Native Americans and many children (regardless of race or class) so that would make them the 4th most oppressed people in America in the 19th century-- if we are ranking.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Cheever's books. This one, at least in part, seemed to more generalized and about Bronson Alcott much more than Louisa May. I admit that it is, at times, hard to separate the two, but I expected more out the bio than what I got. A lot of it seems to be a repeat of American Bloomsbury which I found informative and delightful. Still, I Cheever weaves a great bit of information that I found enlightening , albeit somewhat slanted toward other people than Miss Louisa May.

[Sophia E. Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had alot of interesting facts about Louisa May Alcott's life and different events and people surrounding it, but it really wasn't always about Louisa. I kinda expected it to be a look at her personal life from the title, but a good bit of the book was more about people she knew and events that affected her (like the building of the railroad, the president's inauguration, Civil War battles, etc.), as well as the author's or others' opinions. It also didn't always follow chronological order, which made the end a bit confusing, and it sometimes seemed to jump perspectives (like to Emerson's, her father's, or the president's). Even if it wasn't what you'd expect though, it was enjoyable and informative. It was interesting to read about the things surrounding her life, things that might not be included in other biographies.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the biography I didn’t know I needed of LMA. I loved how the author contextualized her life with lots of history (Transcendentalism, the Civil War) and the other great writers of the time who all lived in the same neighborhood (Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne). Between this and Greta Gurwig’s adaptation, I will be undertaking a necessary re-read of Little Women asap.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded to 3 . author kept making references to herself and her family. spent a majority of time writing about louisa's father. Got more info than kids book i came across, but this was boring and feel i got more info about louisa's life from the kids' book. Felt author was all over the place.

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am LMA’s most devoted fan. I’ve made the pilgrimage to Orchard House twice and I thought I knew everything about her, It turns out, I only knew the bare bones. Thank you, Susan Cheever for fleshing them out. Not only was this book filled with interesting (and tragic) details about my childhood heroine, but it also provided a front row seat to 19th Century American History. Outstanding!

[Bethany Swafford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed this more if there had been fewer of the author's modern day observations throughout the book. It would have made more sense if such comments had been left in the beginning or at the end.