By 1888, twenty years after the publication of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was one of the most popular and successful authors America had yet produced. In her pre-Little Women days, she concocted blood-and-thunder tales for low wages; post-Little Women, she specialized in domestic novels and short stories for children. Collected here for the first time are the reminiscences of people who knew her, the majority of which have not been published since their original appearance in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the printed recollections in this book appeared after Alcott became famous and showcase her as a literary lion, but others focus on her teen years, when she was living the life of Jo March; these intimate glimpses into the life of the Alcott family lead the reader to one conclusion: the family was happy, fun, and entertaining, very much like the fictional Marches. The recollections about an older and wealthier Alcott show a kind and generous, albeit outspoken, woman little changed by her money and status. Pratt's recollections of the Alcott sisters' acting days to Julian Hawthorne's neighborly portrait of the Alcotts, the thirty-six recollections in this copiously illustrated volume tell the private and public story of a remarkable life. "This delightful and incredibly useful collection brings together a kaleidoscope of firsthand accounts of Alcott: the breezy author slinging slang, the defiant and funny activist, and much more. Filled with difficult-to-find primary sources, Shealy's volume will be as gratifying to readers as it is necessary to students and scholars."--Gregory Eiselein, coeditor of The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia and the Norton Critical Edition of Little Women Daniel Shealy, a professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has published nine books on Louisa May Alcott, including The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott and The Journals of Louisa May Alcott. Used Book in Good Condition