LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832-1888)

This barely disguised account of Alcott family life marks the advent of the modern juvenile novel, along with Mary M. Dodge's Hans Brinker (1866) and Thomas B. Aldrich's The Story of a Bad Boy (1870). In this tale of coming of age in nineteenth-century New England, Alcott portrayed childhood and adolescence with realism, naturalism and sincerity, even to the point of capturing the speech patterns and behavior of teenagers. This was quite unconventional for the fiction of her time.

When Little Women was published in the fall of 1868, only a small number was printed, and these did not sell well. As a consequence, when the second part was issued the following year, it too was printed in a small edition, but became extremely popular, awakening the public to the first part, both of which were soon sold out. Thus the first issues of Little Women and Little Women, Part Second are quite scarce. The first edition of Little Women was issued in purple, brick red and green cloth; the University of Delaware Library copy on exhibit is in the green binding. The frontispiece was illustrated by Louisa May Alcott's sister, May.

Purchased through the Matthew Newkirk Memorial Fund