Little Women at 150

Abstract

As the golden age of children’s literature dawned in America in the mid-1860s, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, a work that many scholars view as one of the first realistic novels for young people, soon became a classic. Never out of print, Alcott’s classic tale of four sisters growing up in post-Civil War New England has been published in more than thirty countries around the world. Over the century and a half since its publication, the novel grew into a cherished book for girls and boys alike. Readers as diverse as Carson McCullers, Gloria Steinem, Theodore Roosevelt, and J. K. Rowling have declared it a favorite. Little Women at 150, a collection of nine original essays by scholars whose research and writings over the past twenty years have helped elevate Alcott’s reputation in the academic community, examines anew the enduring popularity of the novel and explores the myriad complexities of Alcott’s most famous work.Examining key issues about philanthropy, class, feminism, Marxism, transcendentalism, canon formation, domestic labor, marriage, and Australian literature, Little Women at 150 presents new perspectives on one of the United States’ most enduring novels. An historical and critical introduction discusses the creation and publication of the novel, traces the scholarly critical response, and demonstrates how these new essays show us that Little Women and its illustrations still have riches to reveal to its readers in the 21st century.