Louisa May Alcott, Little Women: Or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy

Helena Maragou (Deree-The American College of Greece)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1868 - 1869

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Children's Literature
- Young Adult

Resources

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Louisa May Alcott wrote

Little Women

in 1868, at the request of Thomas Niles of the Roberts Brothers' publishing house. Niles had repeatedly asked Alcott to write a book for girls until, pressed by the financial needs that constantly beset the Alcott family, she was finally convinced to undertake the project. Alcott wrote energetically and managed to complete the first volume of

Little Women

in about two months. Published in October of 1868, this first volume became an immediate commercial success, a fact that led Roberts Brothers to ask for a sequel. Alcott acquiesced and submitted the second volume (entitled

Good Wives

) for publication by the end of the year. The combined two volumes appeared in April 1869 and sold the extraordinary number of 30,000 copies in a period of only fourteen…

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3310 words

Citation: Maragou, Helena. "Little Women: Or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3890, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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Louisa May Alcott, Little Women: Or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy

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