Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1833 - 1888) was an American fiction writer whose fame rests chiefly on the autobiographical novel Little Women. Written for young readers, the book depicts the lives of four girls - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - as they grow up in mid-nineteenth century New England.

She was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of the transcendentalist Bronson Alcott. The family soon thereafter moved to Massachusetts and it was there, in Boston and Concord, that she spent nearly all the rest of her life. Educated largely at home in accordance with her father's ideas of such matters, Louisa from an early age was immersed in the high-minded culture of the Concord intelligentsia.