Spring 2008 - University of Georgia Press

Little Women Abroad
The Alcott Sisters’ Letters from Europe, 1870–1871
Louisa May Alcott and May Alcott
Edited by Daniel Shealy
August
7 x 9 | 368 pp. | 78 b&w photos
1 map
Cloth, $34.95t | 978-0-8203-3009-9
A trove of words and pictures offers new insights
into a celebrated American family
In 1870, Louisa May Alcott and her younger sister Abby May Alcott
began a fourteen-month tour of Europe. Louisa had already made her
mark as a writer; May was on the verge of a respected art career. Little
Women Abroad gathers a generous selection of May’s drawings along
with all of the known letters written by the two Alcott sisters during
their trip. More than thirty drawings are included, nearly all of them
previously unpublished. Of the seventy-one letters collected here, more
than three-quarters appear in their entirety for the first time. Daniel
Shealy’s supporting materials add detail and context to the people,
places, and events referenced in the letters and illustrations.
By the time of the Alcott sisters’ sojourn, Louisa’s Little Women was
already an international success, and her most recent work, An Old-
Fashioned Girl, was selling briskly. Louisa was now a grand literary
lioness on tour. She would compose Little Men while in Europe, and her
European letters would form the basis of her travel book Shawl Straps.
If Louisa’s letters reveal a writer’s eye, then May’s demonstrate an eye for
color, detail, and composition. Although May had prior art training in
Boston, she came into her own only during her studies with European
masters. When at a loss for words, she took her drawing pen in hand.
These letters of two important American artists, one literary, the other
visual, tell a vibrant story at the crossroads of European and American
history and culture.
“These letters add to our knowledge of the Alcotts and demonstrate
the artistic eye through which May Alcott saw the treasures of Europe.
Not only is this the only work of its kind about Louisa May Alcott,
it is also a valuable addition to the fields of travel literature and
nineteenth-century transatlantic studies.”
—Joel Myerson, coeditor of The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott
Also of interest
The Journals of Louisa May Alcott
Edited by Joel Myerson and Daniel Shealy;
Madeleine B. Stern, Associate Editor
Paper, $26.95s | 978-0-8203-1950-6
The Selected Letters of
Louisa May Alcott
Edited by Joel Myerson and Daniel Shealy;
Madeleine B. Stern, Associate Editor
Paper, $24.95s | 978-0-8203-1740-3
“No scholar of his generation has added more to our understanding
of Louisa May Alcott than Daniel Shealy. In his brilliantly researched
Little Women Abroad, he outdoes himself.”
—John Matteson, author of Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May
Alcott and Her Father
Daniel Shealy is a professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
He is the editor of Alcott in Her Own Time and has also been involved in numerous
publications related to Alcott’s fiction, letters, and journals.
Wade Burton
Literature
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