Eden's outcasts : the story of Louisa May Alcott and her father

Author / Creator

Matteson, John

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Summary

"Louisa May Alcott's name is known universally. Yet, during her youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson - an eminent teacher and lecturer and an admired friend of Emerson and Thoreau. He d...

"Louisa May Alcott's name is known universally. Yet, during her youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson - an eminent teacher and lecturer and an admired friend of Emerson and Thoreau. He desired perfection, both, for the world and from his family. Willful and exuberant, Louisa was anything but the model daughter. While her three sisters more readily won Bronson's favor, Louisa puzzled and appalled him with her mercurial moods and restless yearnings for money and fame, The other prize she deeply coveted - her father's understanding -seemed the hardest of all to win," "At the same time that the clashing personalities of father and daughter threatened to drive them apart, their struggles to find beauty and justice in an imperfect world continually reunited them, Plagued by disappointments, Bronson fought to recover from the collapse of his career and an ensuing mental breakdown. Encouraged by her mother and sisters and fortified by the guidance of Bronson's literary friends, Louisa traveled an improbable path from her father's utopian community through the hospitals of the Civil War to the cultured drawing rooms of Europe. Seeking always to ease her family's poverty, she made a living writing stories for magazines until Little Women changed her life forever, earning her not only wealth but also an enduring place among America's most admired writers." "This story of Bronson and Louisa's tense yet loving relationship adds dimensions to Louisa's life, her work, and the relationships of fathers and daughters."--BOOK JACKET.

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