Most of you may remember Louisa May Alcott as the author of Little Women. During her lifetime, she accomplished much more. Brought up in a Concord, Massachusetts neighborhood that was home to a number of well-known writers of the mid-nineteenth century, her father was a teacher who hobnobbed with a literary crowd who became known as the “Transcendentalists.”
A balky child, Louisa loved to write and kept a diary since childhood. She adopted the causes of her day: abolition, suffrage, and women’s rights. Before the Civil War, her family even harbored runaway slaves, although her father, Bronson, often had more ideas than money.
After beginning to read the book, American Bloomsbury, by Susan Cheever and enjoying what she has to say about Louisa May Alcott, I happened to notice a book on my own bookshelf. Oddly enough, I have no recollection as to where I collected it. Louisa May Alcott: Quilts of Her Life, Her Work, Her Heart by Terry Clothier Thompson (Krause Publications, 2008) provides a way to honor Alcott by making an appliqué quilt with quilt blocks that recall her life. Snippets of history are a charming part of the book.
It has been a very long time since I read Little Women. I may have to revisit it sometime. Thompson was lucky enough to buy a book at an antiques auction titled, Life, Letters and Journals – Louisa M. Alcotts. Included are writings from 1832 to 1888. These inspired the fabric “cameos” of Alcott’s life. What a wonderful book!
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
