Louisa May Alcott portrays a writer as worthy of interest in her own right as her most famous character, Jo March, and addresses all aspects of Alcott's life: the effect of her father's self-indulgent utopian schemes; her family's chronic economic difficulties and frequent uprootings; her experience as a nurse in the Civil War; the loss of her health and frequent recourse to opiates in search of relief from migraines, insomnia, and symptomatic pain. Stories and details culled from Alcott's journals; her equally rich letters to family, friends, publishers, and admiring readers; and the correspondence, journals, and recollections of her family, friends, and famous contemporaries provide the basis for this account of the author's life, a classic rags-to-riches story.

Alcott would become the equivalent of a multimillionaire in her lifetime; her books far outsold those by contemporaries like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Henry James. This biography explores Alcott's life in the context of her works, all of which are to some extent autobiographical. A modern take on this remarkable and prolific writer, who secretly authored pulp fiction, harbored radical abolitionist views, and completed heroic service as a Civil War nurse, Louisa May Alcott is also the story of how the beloved American classic Little Women came to be. This revelatory portrait presents a new perspective on the popular author.

“Every now and then, there appears a writer who has tracked a subject for so long through space and time that the resulting product ranks it superior to any of the facile interpretations or extended magazine articles that currently pass for biography. Such is the case with Harriet Reisen . . . Ms. Reisen is a master storyteller. Chapters are never formulaic. With compassion and insight, she propels readers on to the next adventure, sacrifice, tragedy and triumph.?—Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, The Washington Times

“As Harriet Reisen's enchanting biography reminds us, Alcott patterned the March family on her own and Jo on herself . . . [Her life] is richly examined in Ms. Reisen's full and vivid portrait.?—Melanie Kirkpatrick, The Wall Street Journal

“There may be better American novels, but Little Women surely ranks among the most cherished . . . Fans will adore Harriet Reisen's sympathetic biography Louisa May Alcott. With charming verve, she details Alcott's remarkable if difficult life.?—USA Today

“Drawing heavily on family letters and journals, Reisen's intimate biography . . . is a moving and sympathetic look at the Alcotts and their extraordinary cultural mileu.?—Julia M. Klein, Obit Magazine

“Harriet Reisen puts 20 years of study into a highly readable story. She casts a revealing new light upon an ambitious woman who was very much like her literary alter ego.?—Joyce Saenz Harris, The Dallas Morning News

"Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women has been something of a rite of passage between mothers and daughters for generations. Mothers present their little girls with their very own copy of the book. And eventually, some lazy vacation day or rainy weekend is given over to a viewing of one the film versions of Alcott's book, whether it's the 1933 Katherine Hepburn version, the 1949 June Allyson vehicle, or the modern 1994 Winona Ryder interpretation. But while Little Women was, in part, autobiographical, the full story of the life and times of Louisa May Alcott is not so well known. Author and screenwriter Harriet Reisen has taken on that challenge, and the result is her comprehensive and eminently readable work Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women . . . Her book is at once sweeping and personal . . . Reisen's devotion both to scholarship and Alcott herself makes the book truly an interesting and engaging read . . . There are so many stories seemingly effortlessly woven into the book: not just Louisa's life but life in Boston in the 1800's, the anti-slavery movement, the Civil War, the transcendentalist movement, Louisa's father Bronson's life as a teacher and philosopher."—Victoria Shouldis, Concord Monitor

“A lively, engrossing portrait of Louisa May Alcott's life that will appeal to the legions of women who grew up worshipping the book . . . [Alcott's] spirit shines through in Reisen's retelling.?—Meghan Barr, Associated Press

“Reisen's lifelong fascination with Little Women and the woman who wrote it has produced an absorbing narrative, in many ways the best ever, of Alcott's own life . . . The utterly compelling force of Alcott's personality has never been better described. I found the book compulsively readable; I couldn?t put it down.?—Robert Richardson, author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire and Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind

“Brilliantly researched . . . Her biography will occupy an essential place on any Alcott bookshelf.?—John Matteson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father

“A beautifully written, significant, and fascinating work. Harriet Reisen does with this biography what Alcott did with her writing—gives us a memorable and inspiring gift full of humanity, heart, and soul.?—Winona Ryder, producer and star of Little Women

“[Reisen's] story equals—and maybe bests—her beloved book about the lively March sisters.?—Lisa Shea, Elle

"Reisen delivers an in-depth portrait of the spirited, sentimental, imaginative, realistic woman whose childhood vow was to 'be rich, famous, and happy.' Reisen draws extensively from Alcott's prodigious output of literary works, travel sketches, articles, journals and letters, as well as the recollections of her contemporaries . . . Reisen deftly weaves the story of Alcott's life into the rich social, cultural and historical fabric of mid-19th-century New England. The author's insightful examination reveals Alcott as a compulsive writer who peppered her stories with external details and internal currents of her life; an ardent abolitionist who served as a Civil War army nurse; a self-espoused spinster who cherished her independence but harbored a schoolgirl romantic attachment to Thoreau and a midlife crush on a young Polish pianist; a thoroughly modern feminist who wrote about the power struggle between the sexes and championed women's suffrage; and a middle-aged woman who relied on opiates to cope with her failing health. An absorbing portrait of the protean author whose 'life was no children's book.'"—Kirkus Reviews

"Reisen's writing is lively and appealing. She analyzes Alcott's best-known works—Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys—as well as Pauline's Passion and Punishment, Behind a Mask, and Perilous Play, the pulp fiction Alcott wrote anonymously or as A.M. Barnard. Drawing extensively from Alcott's journals and letters as well as those of her family members, Reisen portrays Alcott's life with precision and sympathy yet does not hide her flaws. This compelling biography allows readers to know Alcott and appreciate her as 'her own best character.' Highly recommended for . . . readers interested in American women writers and women's studies."&...