My admiration of Louisa May Alcott is known among my friends and documented on these cyber-pages. I can still see the tear stained pages of my first copy of Little Women as Beth takes her last breath; how I tried not to sob on my library book, failing miserably. I was a young girl, a not-so-young girl, a granny, and I’ve treasured Alcott’s books and books about Alcott ever since that first schoolgirl reading.
We walked around Walden Pond a few years ago. I imagined Jo and Laurie skating on ice there and Meg falling in. I imagined Alcott’s friend, Henry Thoreau, talking to a young Louisa as she looked on in admiration. We walked through the rooms of Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts and I marveled at the simple desk she penned her most famous novel and many more works and we visited Concord’s cemetery, Sleepy Hollow. Author’s Ridge is high on top, overlooking the town, and it is there that Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau are buried and there where Louisa May rests in the simple grave above the famous town.
When my friend Sharon told me of a presentation of Alcott at the Elmhurst Historical Museum, I just knew I had to go.
Leslie Goddard, in period costume, a deep purple day dress with long, flowing sleeves and lace collar, gave a riveting impersonation of Louisa May Alcott, speaking about her experiences as a Union war nurse during the Civil War. Taken from Alcott’s “Hospital Sketches”, Ms. Goddard excelled in bringing the author to life with the wit and compassion found in Alcott’s writing.
Goddard, as Alcott, told of her eagerness to be part of the war and how she enlisted as a nurse with Dorothea Dix. She told of the hardships of war and the horrible injuries suffered and of the dying man she tended to, staying with him until his last breath, holding his hand and then carefully prying it away, his grip still tight after he passed away. She also told of the illness she suffered, typhus pneumonia, after only being at the hospital for three weeks and which ended her military nursing.
It was an amazing dramatization. I wish you could have been there to see it. Thank you Sharon for telling me about it and sharing the experience. It so gratifying to spend time with friends, learn new things, and be further enlightened about a favorite author.
Little Women was a favorite of mine. I loved the book and the movie, the version with Katherine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. I still own my childhood book. I wish now that I had stopped at Concord when I was out east last year. Such a simple marker….
It sounds like a fun and interesting afternoon.
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I am so impressed, Teresa, that you still have your childhood book. What a treasure that must be. If you ever get near Concord again, try to stop there. There is so much of history and literature and, oh, I’ll just go on and on.
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Your welcome, I’m glad you were able to be there, it would have been hard for me to tell you how great Leslie portrayed Louisa, such feeling, you had to be there, you just got the goose bumps. I’m glad we were able to experience it together, thanks friend…now we want to read Hospital Sketches.
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It is hard to describe. I felt that Leslie really knew her character, Louisa, and her history. Me too. You might like Hospital Sketches more than Old Fashioned Girl. (tee hee – I like to get you in trouble)
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Would you believe I have never read Little Women, I haven’t read any of Alcott’s books. I don’t know why this is. I do remember my mother speaking of them, of how she loved them. Maybe it is time to read them now,
My great love was Anne of Green Gables, another book that my mother spoke of with great love. So now I am wondering why did I read Anne and not Little Women as well?
I can only imagine how much you enjoyed the presentation Penny, I am sure that i would have too, and that it would have sent me running to the library 😉
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Oh, do try to read Little Women now, Marilyn. Read it as a practice so you can share it later with Harriet.
I loved Anne as well. Sometimes, especially as young girls, I think we really identify with a character and read and re-read them. Little Women was like that for me.
I did, Marilyn, and I think you would have enjoyed it as well. The presenter really seemed to know LMA and captivated her audience.
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I would have loved this! I read “the woman behind little women” not too long ago and since then have been re-reading Louisa’s works. (I’m a great-grandmother and I still love them!)
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I loved The Woman Behind Little Women. It was a much appreciated Christmas gift last year. PBS did an American Masters presentation of it, Sallie. Have you seen it? Reisen did the screenplay for it and then decided to write the book. They are wonderful companion pieces. You might want to try to find it as it is well done.
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The dramatization looks like it was fascinating. I love Louisa May Alcott as well. I have not researched her nor read her books as much as you have, but I have a long history with her. Little Women was one of my Mother’s favorite books and my big sister narrowly missed being named Josephine. My Dad vetoed the name, but her middle name is Joe. I remember Mom reading Little Women as a bedtime story when we were quite young. I have read the book several times myself. I read it as a young girl and when I was expecting my daughter and the Dr. said to stay off my feet. I have read it a few times since, but not for a few years. I need to get back to it. Unfortunately, I loaned my old copy and….well, it’s gone. I have been looking for another old one.
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I think Louisa is to me what Anne is to you, Janet. Isn’t it fun? It is so interesting that your mom loved Jo’s character so much she wanted to name her daughter after her. It’s also interesting they we both named our daughters Jennifer, without realizing it at the time. Yea! I hope you find an old replacement of Little Women. If you let me know a bit about the age, cover, copyright, etc. I’ll look for it, too.
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What a wonderful experience. Louisa May Alcott and the little group of visionaries to whom she belonged had, I feel certain, something close to the secret of happiness. They lived life with all its horrors and elations and emerged with a grace and calm which brings tears to my eyes when I think too hard about it. So glad you had this chance to see someone portray someone as special as this.
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They are sometimes referred to as America’s Bloomsbury. It was such a grand experience walking along their streets and ponds and visiting some of their homes a few years ago.
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Hospital Sketches is on its way to me, and I have An Old-Fashioned Girl, A Marble Women, The Lost Summer, and Austen’s Persuasion, so you know who I will be cuddling up with this Winter, my new girlfriends….and Bill could watch old army movies and sports in the man-cave…
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Wow! You’ve been energetic in getting those, Sharon. Good for you. We’ll have to find a good book for Bill now.
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What a great post and your visit to Concord, MA sounded phenomenal! Now I want to pick up Little Women and give it another go – sorry to say I NEVER finished the book! Having seen the movie in several versions throughout my life, I never brought myself to tackle the book because I knew what was going to happen, though I am sure the book is completely different experience!
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Janet, you must go to Concord, MA some day. Walden Pond, The Manse, where the Revolutionary War began, and all the authors that have, and still do, live there. I kept hoping I’d bump into Doris Kearns Goodwin. The movies are all good, but, the book is a better, as is always the case. Try her adult book, Hospital Sketches, which is about her experience as a nurse in the Civil War.
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[…] first saw Leslie Goddard last winter when she portrayed one of my favorite authors, Louisa May Alcott. I knew she would capture the essence of the former first lady of the United States. She did not […]
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