Photos: 150 years on, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women still resonates
A century and a half before the #MeToo movement gave women a bold, new collective voice, Louisa May Alcott was lending them her own with “Little Women”. Society had far different expectations of women in 1867, when publisher Thomas Niles asked her to write a "girls' story." Since then, the coming-of-age book has been translated into more than 50 languages and made into films, a musical and a recently aired PBS "Masterpiece" miniseries. The novel constantly finds new audiences as women worldwide confront sexual misconduct, misogyny and pay inequity.
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The title page of the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott seen in an 1869 edition of the book at Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts. A century and a half before the #MeToo movement gave women a bold, new collective voice, Alcott was lending them her own. To celebrate the sesquicentennial, Orchard House has lined events, including a conversational series to discuss the book’s modern-day relevance. (Steven Senne / AP)
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A portrait of Louisa May Alcott in 1870. Alcott drew heavily from her experiences living in poverty with progressive parents Bronson and Abigail Alcott and three sisters in Concord. Although her transcendentalist father led his family through 30 homes, Orchard House stands out as the place where Little Women came to life. (Hulton Archive / Getty)
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Alcott was 26 when her family moved into the then dilapidated house in 1858. The family turned the farmhouse into a place where Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and other literary neighbours would drop by for discussions. Looking back, Orchard House Executive Director Jan Turnquist said, the Alcotts were feminists. “They believed all humans have agency.” (Steven Senne / AP)
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Alcott was the first woman to register in Concord in 1879 when Massachusetts gave women the right to vote in town elections on education and children’s issues. In a letter to the Woman’s Journal, Alcott wrote: “No bolt fell on our audacious heads, no earthquake shook the town.” At 30, she served as a nurse in the Civil War and travelled alone when most women could not. (Steven Senne / AP)
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