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Wonderful ALS signed “L. M. Alcott,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.25 x 7, no date (ca. 1868 or later). Handwritten letter from Louisa May Alcott to “Miss or Mrs. Thurston,” discussing the impact of Little Women and its place in children’s literature, in full: “As I don’t [have] your proper address I must be a little forward in the beginning, but I thank you very much for your kind note, for these tokens of interest from strangers are among the pleasantest consequences of story writing. My ‘Little Women’ have much astonished their Momma by making many friends for themselves, & she can only account for it by the grain of truth that lay at the bottom of the little story. The praise I value most you have given me, in saying that my effort to do something toward putting simpler & healthier food before the little people has been made evident at least, though very imperfectly carried out.
I have such a love and reverence for children that it makes me heart-sick to see the trash offered them, when there is so much that is true & fresh & helpful in their own innocent hearts & lives, if wiser, older heads would only learn how to shadow it forth in hearty plain words for their pleasure & instruction. The little people have taught me more than I can ever teach them, & my greatest satisfaction is the friendship with which they honor me. ‘Jo’ is not myself any more than the others are my sisters, only suggestions of the four real girls. I consider her a failure, for she was meant as a warning, & to my surprise naughty, riotous, peppery Jo turns out to be the favorite. I’m afraid it’s a proof of natural depravity in the rising generation.” In fine condition.
The recipient of this letter was likely Louise M. Thurston (1848- 1917), then an aspiring young author from Chicago. In 1867, the Sunday-School Society held a contest offering prizes for manuscript books for young children. Thurston was awarded a prize leading to the publication of her Forrest Mills: A Peep at Child-Life from Within in 1868, the year the first edition of Little Women appeared. She went on to write four books in the Charley Roberts series (1870-72) before abandoning her writing career. Godey’s Lady’s Book hailed them as ‘entertaining and instructive stories.’
In 1867, Thomas Niles, the publisher of Louisa May Alcott's works, recommended that she write a book about girls that would have widespread appeal. Though both felt the first draft was dull, the little girls who read it deemed it 'splendid'—Alcott wrote, 'they are the best critics, so I should definitely be satisfied.' Such a sentiment echoes another found in our offered letter, with Alcott again lauding her young audience: “The little people have taught me more than I can ever teach them.” The first edition of Little Women was published in 1868 by Roberts Brothers. The book's immediate success—the initial printing of 2,000 copies sold out very quickly—surprised both her and her publisher, and the novel was declared 'the great literary hit of the season.'
In keeping with the titular convention of the era, the first edition of the book was entitled 'Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy'—characters based on herself and her three sisters: Elizabeth, Anna, and Abigail May, the latter of whom provided the illustrations for the book’s first edition. Contrary to what Alcott writes in this letter, it’s widely believed that the character of Jo March was stylized after her creator. Jo is characterized as a dreamer, bold and outspoken, creative, brave, and energetic, traits that her contemporaries attested matched those held by Alcott. In fact, when Alcott gave her mother the first copy of the book, she wrote the inscription, ‘Marmee, from Jo.’ A remarkable letter on one of the great American literary works of the 19th century.
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