Louisa May Alcott, Work: A Story of Experience

Helena Maragou (Deree-The American College of Greece)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1872

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience was published in 1872 but was begun a decade earlier under the initial title Success. To friends and publishers Alcott consistently described the work as autobiographical. Edna Cheney, Alcott's friend and the first editor of her letters and journals, recalled that Louisa once said, “Christie's adventures are many of them my own; Mr Power is Mr. Parker”(265). Alcott made a similar statement to Louise Chandler Mouldon. A few years before the author's death, Mouldon wrote her asking for material to complete Alcott's biographical sketch in Our Famous Women. In January 1883 Alcott responded: “I have very little material to offer for my journals were all burnt long ago …

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5227 words

Citation: Maragou, Helena. "Work: A Story of Experience". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 January 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14958, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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