Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson
	List Price:   $29.95 Unit Price:   $23.96 You Save:   $5.99 (20%) ISBN-10:   0393059642 ISBN-13:   9780393059649 Publisher:   W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated Edition:   illustrated Category:   Young Adults Pub. Date:   August 2007 Pages:   497 Format:   Trade Cloth
Subjects
ALCOTT FAMILY
Description/Notes
John Matteson is an associate professor of English at John Jay College in New York City. 'Louisa May Alcott's name is known universally. Yet, during her youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson - an eminent teacher and lecturer and an admired friend of Emerson and Thoreau. He desired perfection, both, for the world and from his family. Willful and exuberant, Louisa was anything but the model daughter. While her three sisters more readily won Bronson's favor, Louisa puzzled and appalled him with her mercurial moods and restless yearnings for money and fame, The other prize she deeply coveted - her father's understanding -seemed the hardest of all to win,' 'At the same time that the clashing personalities of father and daughter threatened to drive them apart, their struggles to find beauty and justice in an imperfect world continually reunited them, Plagued by disappointments, Bronson fought to recover from the collapse of his career and an ensuing mental breakdown. Encouraged by her mother and sisters and fortified by the guidance of Bronson's literary friends, Louisa traveled an improbable path from her father's utopian community through the hospitals of the Civil War to the cultured drawing rooms of Europe. Seeking always to ease her family's poverty, she made a living writing stories for magazines until Little Women changed her life forever, earning her not only wealth but also an enduring place among America's most admired writers.' 'This story of Bronson and Louisa's tense yet loving relationship adds dimensions to Louisa's life, her work, and the relationships of fathers and daughters.'--BOOK JACKET. The beloved author ofLittle Womenwas torn between pleasing her idealistic father and planting her feet in the material world. Louisa May Alcott's name is known universally. Yet, during her youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson—an eminent teacher, lecturer, and admired friend of Emerson and Thoreau. Willful and exuberant, Louisa flew in the face of all her father's intricate theories of child rearing. She, in turn, could not understand the frugal life Bronson preached, one that reached its epitome in the failed utopian community of Fruitlands. In a family that insisted on self-denial and spiritual striving, Louisa dreamed of wealth and fame. At the same time, like most daughters, she wanted her father's approval. As her father struggled to recover from a breakdown and slowly resurrect his career, Louisa learned to support her family, teaching if she must, but finally finding her vocation in writing. This story of their tense yet loving relationship adds dimensions to Louisa's life, her work, and the relationships of fathers and daughters. 26 illustrations. Matteson looks at the personal life behind the beloved author of 'Little Women' in this story that highlights the tense yet loving bond between Louisa May Alcott and her father, Bronson, and that relationships impact on her life and work.