L.M. Alcott: Signature of ReformMadeleine B. Stern Beloved juvenile fiction writer and author of sensational thrillers, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was also an ardent champion of reform movements in nineteenth-century America. Inspired by her parents' zeal for the reforms of their day and influenced by a network of other New Englanders determined to remedy the many ills in American society, the spinster Scheherazade from Concord, Massachusetts, was a firm and convincing advocate in advancing measures extending from domestic reform and alternative medicine, to education and communal society, to antislavery and egalitarianism, to feminism and suffrage. This innovative compilation sheds new light on Alcott's commitment to ameliorating oppressive conditions of all kinds. Madeleine B. Stern pairs selections from the writings of reform leaders with excerpts from Alcott's letters, fiction, and nonfiction works to demonstrate that Alcott was aware of and often moved by the words of other reformers. Stern illuminates the connections between Alcott and the printed sources that filtered into her life and work, and shows how she wove reformist themes throughout her writings, prodding her readers to right the wrongs at home and in the nation. |
Contents
Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe | 21 |
Leaflets | 30 |
Homeopathy | 37 |
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Record of Mr Alcotts School | 63 |
OldFashioned Girl Eight Cousins Jos Boys | 69 |
The Newness | 75 |
John Browns Speech before the Court | 108 |
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Alexis amusement Anthony Burns asked body Boston bread Bronson Alcott brother cheerful Concord Consociate costume cried cure dear desire dress droschky duty Eight Cousins Elizabeth Palmer Peabody eyes face father fear feeling felt Fruitlands girls give glance hand happy head heart homeopathy honor hospital hour husband Ivan Jo's Boys L. M. ALCOTT labor ladies laugh lips Little Women live looked Louisa Alcott Louisa May Alcott Madame Yermaloff mademoiselle Margaret Fuller ment mind Monsieur le Prince mother Mouche never phrenological poor princess reform Rose Russian seemed serfs smile soon soul spirit stood Sybil temper things thought tion tone took town truth Volnoi vote wait watched wife WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING woman suffrage Woman's Journal Woman's Rights women words wound young