Marmee & Louisa; The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother by Eve LaPlante; Free Press, 2012. 368 pages; $26.00 (hardcover).
This book is a game-changer. As LaPlante points out, “the packaging of Louisa…along with the idea that her mother was irrelevant” began immediately after her death. The world was told that Louisa May Alcott was educated by her father, Bronson Alcott, and shaped by his philosopher friends including Henry David Thoreau. Earlier biographies have revealed that the relationship between Louisa and her father was troubled. It is LaPlante, however, who pulls her mother, Abigail May Alcott, out of the shadows where she has been hidden in plain sight for decades as Marmee of Little Women fame. In this double biography of mother and daughter, LaPlante sets the record straight using newly discovered documents. It was Abigail Alcott – not the largely absent and embarrassingly ineffective Bronson – who taught, influenced, inspired, and encouraged Louisa to write. As we finally hear from Abigail, Louisa herself comes into sharper focus. Alcott fans will love this book. Those with an interest in women’s rights and the Civil War will also find it a richly rewarding read.