Unsigned handwritten manuscript leaf by Louisa May Alcott, one page, 7.75 x 9.75, no date but circa 1879–1880. A page from Louisa May Alcott's original manuscript for 'Jack and Jill: A Village Story,' a juvenile novel first serialized in St. Nicholas magazine December 1879–October 1880. In part: "Twilight came before it was done, & a great pile of things loomed up on her table, with no visible means of repair, for Molly's work basket was full of nuts, & her thimble down a hole in the shed-floor where the cats had dropped it in their play.
'I'll ask Bat for hooks & tape, & papa for some money to buy scissors & things, for I don't know where mine are. Glad I can't do any more now! Being neat is such hard work!' & Molly threw herself down on the rug beside the old wooden cradle in which Boo was blissfully rocking with a cargo of toys aboard. She watched her time & as soon as her father had done supper she hastened to say before he got to his desk, 'Please, papa, I want a dollar to get some brass buttons and things to fix Boo's clothes with. He wore a hole in his new trousers coasting down the Kembles' steps. And can't I wash him? He needs it, and Miss Bat won't let me have a tub.'" Alcott makes a number of revisions and corrections to the text, striking through and rewriting several words. In fine condition.
Jack and Jill: A Village Story was published in 1880 by Louisa May Alcott, during the later part of her career when she was already a well-established author. Though aimed at young readers, Jack and Jill reflected Alcott’s ongoing commitment to writing morally instructive stories grounded in domestic life and personal development. The Hartford Daily Courant praised Jack and Jill as 'the best [Alcott] has written for years' and said that some readers thought it as good as or better than Little Women. The novel was part of a wave of post–Little Women publications that cemented her reputation as a leading voice in American juvenile fiction.
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