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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from Hooks

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Speaker 1: dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm tracybe

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Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. So just after Christmas, Uh,

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Speaker 1: I guess last year. Now I've got to go to

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Speaker 1: Orchard House. I'm jealous, I know. Uh. For those of

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Speaker 1: you who do not know, that is one of the

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Speaker 1: many homes that Louisa May Alcott lived in, and it's

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Speaker 1: also where she wrote the first half of the book

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Speaker 1: Little Women. It's where a lot of that book was set.

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Speaker 1: It was in such poor condition when the Alcotts bought

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Speaker 1: it that it came for free with the land that

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Speaker 1: it was sitting on. But it's actually still standing, thanks

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Speaker 1: in part to a massive restoration job that involved shoring

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Speaker 1: up the back of the house and then hand digging

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Speaker 1: a foundation out from under it because it had never

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Speaker 1: had one. It had managed to stay upright for more

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Speaker 1: than a hundred years with no foundation underneath it. So

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Speaker 1: during this visit, the house was decorated for Christmas, and

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Speaker 1: the tour guide top told us all about Luisa may

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Speaker 1: Alcott and her sisters and her family and the lives

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Speaker 1: that they lived in the house. Uh and then because

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Speaker 1: it was an unseasonably warm day since New England's terrible

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Speaker 1: winter had not said in yet. But we took a

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Speaker 1: walk down to conquered Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which is where

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Speaker 1: the family grave site is, as well as the grave

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Speaker 1: sites of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David the Row, and the

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Speaker 1: Emerson family including Ralph Waldo Emerson. So this is really

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Speaker 1: a trip that I took for fun, but naturally it

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Speaker 1: had to become a podcast episode. It's actually going to

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Speaker 1: become too podcast episodes. There's the ones today on Luisa

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Speaker 1: may Alcott uh, and also there will be one a

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Speaker 1: little later about some of the other Alcotts, because they

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Speaker 1: had their own stories in our own notable contributions to

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Speaker 1: the world in which they lived. Um. Kind of a

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Speaker 1: weird note. I don't know if you do this, Holly.

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Speaker 1: Every time I'm working on an episode, I sort of

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Speaker 1: think about out to how to refer to the person

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Speaker 1: we're talking about, like what name to use. Uh. Luisa

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Speaker 1: may Alcott herself was kind of a prickly person. I

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Speaker 1: don't I don't feel entirely comfortable calling her Luisa. I

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Speaker 1: actually understand that because I don't think I would be

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Speaker 1: comfortable with just her first name. Problem is, there are

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Speaker 1: so many Alcotts were talking about this entire time that

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Speaker 1: trying to call her just Alcott became extremely confusing. Uh

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Speaker 1: So I feel like I just need to apologize to

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Speaker 1: her in advance. Were being overly familiar week and I

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Speaker 1: was just calor l m A the whole time. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure she would have loved that in any case. Luisa

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Speaker 1: May Alcott was born on November twenty nine, eight thirty two,

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Speaker 1: in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and her mother, Abigail May Alcott, who

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Speaker 1: went by Abba, was a social worker and an activist

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Speaker 1: in addition to taking care of the household duties that

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Speaker 1: would typically fault to way Ben at the time. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was a teacher and an

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Speaker 1: educational reformer. Some of Little Women is specifically patterned after

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Speaker 1: Luisa May Alcott's young life. She really did have three sisters.

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Speaker 1: Anna was the oldest and became Meg in the books.

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Speaker 1: She and Louisa were actually the only two who were

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Speaker 1: born yet when the family moved from Pennsylvania to Boston

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Speaker 1: while Louisa was still a toddler. The next sister was Elizabeth,

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Speaker 1: who was known to the family as Lizzie and who

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Speaker 1: became Beth in the books. The youngest sister May became

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Speaker 1: Amy in the books, and her first name was really

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Speaker 1: Abigail after their mother Uh and Luisa, and her sisters

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Speaker 1: grew up very, very poor. Her parents were both idealistic

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Speaker 1: in a way that meant they perpetually had almost no money. Uh.

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Speaker 1: They were both activists, although each in different ways. Bronson

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Speaker 1: had revolutionary ideas about how children should be educated, which

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Speaker 1: he wanted to put into action, and Abigail wanted to

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Speaker 1: fight against injustice wherever she saw it. Neither of these

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Speaker 1: are terribly lucrative enterprises, and although Abigail's family was relatively prominent,

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Speaker 1: her father was not supportive of Bronson's wilder schemes, and

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Speaker 1: he actually took pains to keep his money from funding them.

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Speaker 1: Bronson Alcot's philosophies of teaching were also really controversial, and

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Speaker 1: this is something that we are going to discuss in

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Speaker 1: another episode in Mord's Tail, but it did apply to

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Speaker 1: both what he taught and how he taught it. This

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Speaker 1: was an era in which school was mostly about memorizing

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Speaker 1: things by rote, and he really thought that children should

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Speaker 1: participate in their education and a sort of Socratic question

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Speaker 1: and answer process. He also thought physical education should be

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Speaker 1: part of children's course of study. Yeah, if anybody's ever

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Speaker 1: read Eight Cousins, which is my absolute favorite Luisa mailcop book,

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Speaker 1: and I sometimes joked that it was my third parent

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Speaker 1: growing up. Uncle Heleck is very clearly based on these

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Speaker 1: ideas that her father uh put forth, and we're really

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Speaker 1: quite influential to me reading them as a young key

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Speaker 1: where I was like, Yeah, women should be out doing

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Speaker 1: exciting things and not just sitting and reading quietly. Uh

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Speaker 1: So these ideas are not strange at all today, but

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Speaker 1: at the time they were really revolutionary, and Bronson rubbed

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Speaker 1: parents as well as other educators the wrong way more

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Speaker 1: than once. His most successful school endeavor, which we were

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Speaker 1: going to talk about in the other episode that Tracy

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Speaker 1: is preparing, only stayed open a few years. He was

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Speaker 1: off and out of work, and sometimes this loss of

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Speaker 1: work also came along with a huge debt thanks to

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Speaker 1: the money that he would put into these projects in

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Speaker 1: the first place. So the Alcott family moved a lot,

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Speaker 1: nearly thirty times before they settled into the now famous

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Speaker 1: Orchard House. The family's idealism also made their lifestyle generally

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Speaker 1: more expensive than it might have been otherwise. At times,

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Speaker 1: Bronson was determined to live off the land, and when

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Speaker 1: he did this sometimes he was actually pretty successful at

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Speaker 1: bringing in enough food to keep the family fed, but

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Speaker 1: it didn't really leave anything extra for them to live on. Plus,

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Speaker 1: they often had extra mouths to feed. They would shelter

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Speaker 1: runaway slaves, or they would offer hospitality to other Transcendentalist

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Speaker 1: thinkers and educators in the area. And on top of that,

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Speaker 1: they did things in a way that was generally more expensive.

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Speaker 1: For example, they would pay more money to buy linen

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Speaker 1: rather than cotton for all of their clothing because cotton

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Speaker 1: was picked by slaves and they refused to have any

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Speaker 1: tie to that. And in terms of their upbringing, the

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Speaker 1: girls were taught at home by their father or at

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Speaker 1: a school where he taught if he had one to

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Speaker 1: teach at, and sometimes they were tutored by other educators

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Speaker 1: who worked with their father. Their days were divided into

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Speaker 1: quote an order of indoor duties which outlined meals, rest, studies,

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Speaker 1: and recreation in the morning, for noon, noon, afternoon, and evening,

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Speaker 1: and this order of duties also outlined how the girls

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Speaker 1: were to behave, including giving quote prompt, cheerful, unquestioning obedience.

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Speaker 1: Those probably sounds really strict, but at the same time,

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Speaker 1: the girls were given ample rain to learn and to

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Speaker 1: express themselves creatively. May who was the budding artist in

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Speaker 1: the family, was allowed to draw on the walls of

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Speaker 1: her room, for example, and Luisa was allowed to read

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Speaker 1: and write as much as she wanted. They were all

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Speaker 1: encouraged to become independent and to think for themselves, although

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Speaker 1: at the same time, while they were growing up, they

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Speaker 1: were doing so under guidelines that were set down by

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Speaker 1: an often very domineering father. And before we talk about

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Speaker 1: some of the specifics that shape Luisa may alcotts outlook

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Speaker 1: in her writing, UH, let's have a word from one

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Speaker 1: of our fabulous sponsors. So to get back to Luisa

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Speaker 1: may Alcott. Uh. For those of our listeners who have read,

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Speaker 1: or watched, or maybe just talked about or heard of

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Speaker 1: Little Women, Joe March is sort of lovably difficult. She

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Speaker 1: is a lot of reader's favorite character, especially when it

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Speaker 1: comes to girls who are kind of tomboyish and want

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Speaker 1: to grow up to be independent and kind of free spirited.

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Speaker 1: But for many of her early years. Louisa may Alcott

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Speaker 1: herself was not lovably difficult, She was just difficult. She

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Speaker 1: she was stubborn to the point of being obstinate, and

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Speaker 1: the extremes of her mood were so drastic that some

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Speaker 1: biographers today theorized that she had a mood disorder. She

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Speaker 1: was wild and difficult enough that her mother actually sent

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Speaker 1: her away while she was pregnant with one of her

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Speaker 1: younger sisters. She'd actually had a miscarriage while Bronson's school

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Speaker 1: was failing, and this was something she was afraid was

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Speaker 1: going to happen again, so she wanted to remove one

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Speaker 1: of the big sources of stress from her life for

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Speaker 1: a little while. And this was one of the very

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Speaker 1: few separations that happened while Louisa was growing up. Because

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Speaker 1: both of her parents thought that their family was more

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Speaker 1: important than them as individuals, so Abigail was for many

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Speaker 1: years unconditionally supportive of Bronson's plans, even if they seem

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Speaker 1: doomed to failure. As one example, Bronson and an English

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Speaker 1: reformer named Charles Lane tried to start a trans and

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Speaker 1: dentalist commune together in Harvard, Massachusetts. The family moved there

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Speaker 1: when Louisa was ten, and she later wrote about it

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Speaker 1: in a satire called transon Dentalist wild Oats. Unsurprisingly, if

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Speaker 1: you have also listened to our episode on the Brook

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Speaker 1: Farm community, this commune did not work out, but Abigail

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Speaker 1: supported this plan until Charles Lane's philosophy started to threaten

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Speaker 1: the structure of their family. He wanted to live in

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Speaker 1: the style of the Shakers, with the men and women

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Speaker 1: separated from one another. I can't remember if we talked

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Speaker 1: about this in the Brook Farm episode. Uh, but Bronson

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Speaker 1: Alcott actually wanted to join Brook Farms specifically, but he

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Speaker 1: didn't have the money to do it, which is why

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Speaker 1: they tried to start their own thing. Um. Apart from

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Speaker 1: this constant poverty that they were living in and moving

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Speaker 1: around over and over and over, the family had a

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Speaker 1: number of other struggles on top of that. When Louisa

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Speaker 1: May Alcott was young, they all got smallpox while living

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Speaker 1: in overcrowded conditions in Boston in the early eighteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: and kind of miraculously they all survived it. All of

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Speaker 1: these various failures in his life made Bronson at sometimes

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Speaker 1: kind of a conquered laughing stock. They were constantly being

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Speaker 1: rescued through the charity of their friends, including Ralph Waldo Emerson,

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Speaker 1: who just kept bailing Bronson out in one way or another,

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Speaker 1: and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who at one point bought a house

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Speaker 1: they had owned for enough money that it let them

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Speaker 1: pay off some of Bronson's debts. However, being in conquered Massachusetts,

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Speaker 1: which was home to many of the best writers and

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Speaker 1: thinkers of that era in the United States, meant that

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Speaker 1: some of those same people became close friends of the Alcots.

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Speaker 1: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Threau were neighbors, and

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Speaker 1: Luisa was extremely fond of both of these men. She'd

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Speaker 1: leave anonymous bunches of wild flowers on Emerson's door, and

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Speaker 1: it's widely speculated that Thorreaux was one of the inspirations

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Speaker 1: for the character of Laurie, although there are others which

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Speaker 1: we will talk about later. Lece Luisa was old and

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Speaker 1: to be out on her own, she moved to Boston

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Speaker 1: by herself for a while, but she came back in

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Speaker 1: the late eighteen fifties when her sister Lizzie was extremely

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Speaker 1: sick with scarlet fever. The rest of the family had

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Speaker 1: by that point moved into Orchard House, which was, as

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Speaker 1: we alluded to earlier, extremely dilapidated. It was so run

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Speaker 1: down that Luisa called it Apple Slump, the apple part

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Speaker 1: of the name coming from the orchard that her father

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Speaker 1: planted there. Lizzie died on March fourteenth of eighteen fifty eight,

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Speaker 1: and Luisa and the rest of the family were, of

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Speaker 1: course heartbroken. This was made worse a couple of months

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Speaker 1: later when Anna announced that she was engaged to John Pratt.

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Speaker 1: Rather than thinking of this is a happy time, Luisa

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Speaker 1: and Abigail both felt like this was a further destruction

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Speaker 1: of their family, so Luisa moved into Orchard House so

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Speaker 1: her mother wouldn't feel like she was losing three daughters.

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Speaker 1: The United States Civil War started in eighteen sixty one,

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Speaker 1: and Luisa pretty much immediately volunteered to be a nurse.

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Speaker 1: On December eleventh, eighteen sixty two, she got a letter

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Speaker 1: that ordered her to report for duty at Union Hotel

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Speaker 1: Hospital in Washington, d C. As its name suggests that

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Speaker 1: as a hotel that the army had taken over to

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Speaker 1: use of the hospital. She only worked as a nurse

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Speaker 1: for six weeks, though, because she got pneumonia, and while

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Speaker 1: sick with pneumonia, she also got typhoid. The Alcotts had

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Speaker 1: mostly treated themselves when they were sick, using homeopathy and rest,

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Speaker 1: and although there's little evidence to suggest that homeopathy is

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Speaker 1: effective in treating most diseases, this was probably better than

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Speaker 1: the treatments advocated by mainstream medicine at the time. This

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Speaker 1: was definitely true when it came to Luisa may Alcott's

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Speaker 1: own treatment for pneumonia and typhus. She was treated with mercury,

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Speaker 1: so in addition to the effects of pneumonia and typhus,

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Speaker 1: she had mercury poisoning to deal with. The mercury treatments

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Speaker 1: caused nerve and muscle damage that she never really recovered from.

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Speaker 1: Hannah Ropes, who was another nurse that had gotten sick

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Speaker 1: at the same time as Louisa did, died and when

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Speaker 1: that happened, the hospital sent for Bronson. It took days

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Speaker 1: before Louisa was well enough to travel back to Conquered

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Speaker 1: and once she did, she continued to be desperately sick

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Speaker 1: for weeks, and at one point she was advised to

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Speaker 1: shave her head to try to combat the combat the illness,

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Speaker 1: which she did and this may have been h an

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Speaker 1: inspiration for a later cutting off of Joe Marcha's hair

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Speaker 1: and Little Women to sell during the Civil War, kind

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Speaker 1: of a twisting of what really happened in real life.

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Speaker 1: Although she did recover her health somewhat, for about the

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Speaker 1: next ten years, Luisa may Alcott experienced pain, she had headaches,

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Speaker 1: she had dizziness, and her health was never really strong again,

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Speaker 1: and over the years she had several seeming relapses in

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Speaker 1: which she once again became critically ill. She did recover

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Speaker 1: enough to be able to travel, though apart from that

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Speaker 1: one trip to Washington, d C. During the Civil War,

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Speaker 1: she had never been outside of New England, and that

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Speaker 1: changed in her early thirties when she was hired to

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Speaker 1: be a nurse to a young girl named Anna Weld

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Speaker 1: and to accompany her on a tour of Europe. This

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Speaker 1: was actually supposed to be a year long post, but

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Speaker 1: Louisa only made it for ten months. She got really

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Speaker 1: exasperated with her young charge, who didn't particularly want to

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Speaker 1: do a whole lot, while Louisa may Alcott naturally wanted

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Speaker 1: to explore and go do things, and write and be

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Speaker 1: active and see this place that she had traveled, so

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Speaker 1: she quit. It was on this trip to Europe that

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Speaker 1: she meant one of the other major influences for the

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Speaker 1: character Lori Latis laws wi Niewski, a chronically ill young

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Speaker 1: man from Poland, and after Louisa quit her post with

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Speaker 1: Anna Well, the two of them traveled to Paris alone.

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Speaker 1: And exactly what the nature of their relationship was continues

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Speaker 1: to be a bit of a source of speculation among biographers.

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Speaker 1: That is, it's a wide range of the speculation that

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Speaker 1: comes up. There's the nothing happened and speculation, and then

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Speaker 1: there's the they were in love with each other but

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Speaker 1: they knew that it would never work out speculation, and

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Speaker 1: then there's that they were just friends speculation like, but

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Speaker 1: nobody really widely disparate the theories and what went on there.

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Speaker 1: Luisa had actually started writing as a young girl, and

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Speaker 1: she wrote extensively during this tour around Europe, but it

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Speaker 1: was after she got home that she really started an

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Speaker 1: earnest effort to write for money. She had tried to

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Speaker 1: earn money to help her family in several different ways,

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Speaker 1: including sewing and teaching, but writing was what she liked

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Speaker 1: the best out of those three, and it seemed as

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Speaker 1: though she had the potential to generate some real income

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Speaker 1: that way. So we'll talk about how that went after

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Speaker 1: another brief break for a word from a sponsor. So

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Speaker 1: Luisa May Alcott had started publishing her work in eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifty four at the age of twenty two, so about

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Speaker 1: ten years before the strip to Europe that we just

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Speaker 1: talked about. Her first book was called Flower Fables, and

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Speaker 1: it came out in eighteen fifty five. Much of her

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Speaker 1: earlier work came out under a pseudonym. She published prose

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Speaker 1: and poetry under the name Flora Fairfield, and a number

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Speaker 1: of plays which came out in Boston, which were published

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Speaker 1: under the name A. M. Bernard. It seemed like she

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Speaker 1: wanted to publish so she could make money, but she

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Speaker 1: also wanted to save her real name for the things

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Speaker 1: that she was really proud of. She finished her first novel,

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Speaker 1: which was called Moods, in eighteen sixty one, and even

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Speaker 1: though she had become pretty well known as a writer

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Speaker 1: by this point, she had trouble finding a publisher for it.

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Speaker 1: James T. Fields told her, stick to your teaching, miss Alcott,

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Speaker 1: you can't write. However, thankfully, Louisa May Alcott was extremely stubborn,

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Speaker 1: and being told to stick to her teaching seems to

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Speaker 1: have made her all that much more determined to make

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Speaker 1: a living as a writer. She published Moods after rewriting

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Speaker 1: it to make it significantly shorter, in eighteen sixty four,

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Speaker 1: and it received mixed reviews. She rewrote it yet again

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Speaker 1: and republished it eight eight two, and at that point

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Speaker 1: she was such a well known writer that it sold

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Speaker 1: very well. Happening at the same time as her rewriting

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00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:11,560
Speaker 1: and trying to find a publisher for Moods. She also

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00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:15,560
Speaker 1: published Hospital Sketches, which came out in eighteen sixty three

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00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,239
Speaker 1: and was kind of a fictionalized memoir based on her

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Speaker 1: time as a Civil War nurse. In the fall of

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven, Alcott's publisher, Thomas Niles, asked her to

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Speaker 1: write a book for girls, and she really didn't want

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Speaker 1: to do it. She didn't think she was qualified to

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Speaker 1: write such a book at all. She had no children

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Speaker 1: of her own, and as a girl she had not

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Speaker 1: been particularly girlish, and even though her three sisters were

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Speaker 1: more typically feminine than she was, she didn't think their

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00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:45,199
Speaker 1: relatively unusual life would have a wide enough appeal. But

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Speaker 1: she said she'd try, and she did start, but it

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Speaker 1: did not go well and she put it a sign.

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Speaker 1: That same year, she became a contributing editor of Mary's Museum,

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Speaker 1: which was a magazine for children. She was paid five

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars a year to do this, and she moved

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Speaker 1: to Boston so that she could take the job for

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Speaker 1: a little while. Her sister May also lived with her.

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Speaker 1: It's possible that this did give her a little bit

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Speaker 1: more experience in the world of writing for children, which

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Speaker 1: might have helped her a little later on. And then

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Speaker 1: the following spring, her father sat down with Niles to

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Speaker 1: talk about what she should do next. Bronson Alcott was

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Speaker 1: there to suggest that she write a book of fairy tales,

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Speaker 1: but what Niles really still needed was a book for

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Speaker 1: juvenile readers, so it was back to his original request.

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Speaker 1: He wanted a book for girls, and Luisa still didn't

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Speaker 1: really want to do it. However, now told her that

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Speaker 1: he would publish a book of philosophy that her father

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00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:44,960
Speaker 1: was writing if she wrote the book for girls that

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Speaker 1: he was asking for. So, continuing to be dutiful to

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Speaker 1: her father and her family, that's what Luisa May Alcott did.

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Speaker 1: She resigned from Mary's Museum and she moved back to

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Speaker 1: Orchard House so that she could really focus on writing,

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Speaker 1: and she wrote Little Women at a desk that her

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Speaker 1: father built for her in her room in Orchard House,

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00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:08,119
Speaker 1: basing it on her own upbringing but setting it there,

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Speaker 1: and it took her ten weeks to write it. It

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00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:12,480
Speaker 1: was just the first part of the book as we

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00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:14,800
Speaker 1: know it today, which takes place while Mr March is

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00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:18,600
Speaker 1: away fighting the Civil War, and she really expected everyone

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00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:22,800
Speaker 1: to hate it. Thomas Niles thought it could sell though.

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Speaker 1: She had the option of taking a one thousand dollar

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Speaker 1: flat payment, which would be you know, twice her annual

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00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:31,640
Speaker 1: salary at Mary's Museum for a book that it had

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00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:34,520
Speaker 1: only taken her ten weeks to write, or she could

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Speaker 1: get three dollars up front, followed by a six point

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Speaker 1: six six percent royalty per book. And she chose the

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00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:45,040
Speaker 1: latter option and that worked out very very well for her.

355
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:48,199
Speaker 1: Little Women sold out its first print run and a

356
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Speaker 1: second had to be ordered, and the publisher asked for

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Speaker 1: a sequel, in which Louisa made it very very clear

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Speaker 1: that she would not marry Joe to Lorie for anything.

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00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,560
Speaker 1: It really got on her nerves how many people asked

360
00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:04,720
Speaker 1: her who the Little Women married? That just rankled her extremely.

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00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:09,000
Speaker 1: She was like, what what did you take away from

362
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:10,720
Speaker 1: this book? Who you get married to? Was not the

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00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,160
Speaker 1: be all end all of everything. She had like very

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Speaker 1: clear opinions on that. It was extremely frustrating to her.

365
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,399
Speaker 1: So she wrote the second part of Little Women in

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Speaker 1: Boston and it was even more successful than the first

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00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:26,320
Speaker 1: half had been. It led to further sequels, and these

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00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:30,000
Speaker 1: books made her financially independent. They let her payoff all

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00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:33,840
Speaker 1: of her father's debts. It gave her family financial security.

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00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:37,960
Speaker 1: Monetary contributions became a big way that she showed love

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00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:40,840
Speaker 1: to the rest of her family, and the sales of

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00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:43,960
Speaker 1: her books also funded a grand tour of Europe for

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Speaker 1: Louisa and May and their friend Alice Bartlett. This trip

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00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:51,280
Speaker 1: was particularly important to May's development as an artist, which

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00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:53,360
Speaker 1: we were going to talk about in the Alcotts episode

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00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:57,119
Speaker 1: that we have brewing. Let's for Itself was also just

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00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,399
Speaker 1: the fact that it existed, uh, pretty notable. Like the

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00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:05,160
Speaker 1: it was three unmarried women who were traveling unaccompanied, arranging

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00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:09,160
Speaker 1: the whole thing themselves, adjusting their arrangements based on various

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00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:11,560
Speaker 1: wars and conflicts that broke out while they were in Europe,

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00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 1: so that the fact that they did this was a

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00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:18,520
Speaker 1: un characteristically independent for what was expected of women at

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00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:23,120
Speaker 1: the time. Sadly, a series of tragedies struck the Alcott

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Speaker 1: family later on in Louise's life. John Pratt died in

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy, which left Anna and the two boys behind,

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00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:32,439
Speaker 1: and this was part of what prompted Louisa to right

387
00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,679
Speaker 1: little men. That was to make sure that Anna and

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00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:39,080
Speaker 1: her children would have enough money to live on. And

389
00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:44,480
Speaker 1: then Abigail Alcott died in eighteen seventy seven. May went

390
00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:46,719
Speaker 1: back to Europe and she got married there in eighteen

391
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,159
Speaker 1: seventy eight. The following year, on November the eight she

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00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:53,080
Speaker 1: had a baby who she named Louisa May after her sister,

393
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Speaker 1: and they nicknamed the baby Lulu. Although Lulu was healthy,

394
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,919
Speaker 1: May never recovered from the delivery, and she died on

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00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:06,199
Speaker 1: December eighteen seventy nine. She specified that Luisa would be

396
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:09,840
Speaker 1: the one to raise Lulu, so after some arrangements were made,

397
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:13,359
Speaker 1: May's husband, Ernest Nicker, and his sister traveled with the

398
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 1: baby to Massachusetts to bring her to Luisa, and Luisa

399
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,919
Speaker 1: had become extremely close to me during their travels together.

400
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:24,200
Speaker 1: So she was of course devastated by her death, as

401
00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: she had been when Lizzie died when she was much younger.

402
00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:29,640
Speaker 1: But she loved Lulu. She raised her until her own

403
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,600
Speaker 1: failing health meant she could no longer do so. She

404
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:34,879
Speaker 1: also started taking care of her father after he had

405
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,160
Speaker 1: a terrible stroke near the end of his life. Luisa

406
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,560
Speaker 1: went to visit her father, who was at that point

407
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:46,800
Speaker 1: really in failing health, on March one. According to her

408
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 1: sister Anna, her father said to Luisa, I am going

409
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,880
Speaker 1: up come with me, and Luisa replied, oh, I wish

410
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:58,120
Speaker 1: I could. Her father then told her to come soon.

411
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,159
Speaker 1: And it's really the only the come soon part that

412
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 1: appears in Louisa's own journals and Bronson Alcott died three

413
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,960
Speaker 1: days later on March fourth. Word didn't make it to

414
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:12,120
Speaker 1: Louisa before she fell into a coma about a day later,

415
00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: after she had been complaining of a headache and a

416
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:20,120
Speaker 1: weight on her chest. She died on March sixth. As

417
00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,240
Speaker 1: The New York Times wrote in her obituary quote, there

418
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,800
Speaker 1: was probably no writer among women better loved by the

419
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 1: young than she, and before her death she had sold

420
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 1: more than a million books, and her fiction had earned

421
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,400
Speaker 1: her more than two hundred thousand dollars. This is an

422
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:40,440
Speaker 1: astronomical about an amount of money at that time. All

423
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 1: of these books, if you've never read Little Women or

424
00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:44,919
Speaker 1: any of the other things, they're all in the public

425
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 1: domain now and you can basically read all of them

426
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 1: on the internet for free. Yeah, a lot of them

427
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,919
Speaker 1: are available through book sites for free as free downloads.

428
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,160
Speaker 1: They're everywhere, which is how I I re picked up

429
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:02,320
Speaker 1: uh eight Cousins a few years ago when it was

430
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 1: offered as a free download, and I would just remember

431
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,320
Speaker 1: marveling and going like, Okay, I always knew this book

432
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 1: was super influential on me. This book was super influential.

433
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 1: Like it kind of put in sharp contrast just how

434
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: much I had kind of taken away from it. Yeah,

435
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: it should. It should come as a surprise to nobody

436
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:25,400
Speaker 1: that all of the books about young tomboyish women who

437
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 1: wanted to be writers appealed to me extremely as a child,

438
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:36,399
Speaker 1: So uh yeah that you you might not be surprised if,

439
00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:38,160
Speaker 1: at some point in the future there is some other

440
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: trip I make to some other writer's house, but I

441
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:42,879
Speaker 1: do for front and then becomes an episode. We just

442
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,159
Speaker 1: try to make sure they're not too close together. Do

443
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,520
Speaker 1: you also have some listener mail to wrap up with?

444
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 1: I do. Before we get to it, we that there

445
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:53,399
Speaker 1: is going to be an upcoming episode soon. It might

446
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:54,960
Speaker 1: not be the very next one that we do, but

447
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,640
Speaker 1: soon that we'll talk more about, especially Brinson Alcott and

448
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: Um and may Alcott, because they each had very fascinating

449
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,879
Speaker 1: stories and contributions of their own, which I think become

450
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:11,199
Speaker 1: overshadowed in the Luisa may Alcott story a lot. And

451
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,200
Speaker 1: I do have listener mail, and it is about our

452
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:17,199
Speaker 1: recent episode about Dr Vera. Peters Um and it is

453
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,920
Speaker 1: from Joan. Joan says, Dear Tracy and Holly, I've listened

454
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:23,160
Speaker 1: to your podcast for a few years now, but I'm

455
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,120
Speaker 1: writing for the first time. I am an emergency medicine

456
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,159
Speaker 1: physician in St. Louis and a St. Louis native, although

457
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,639
Speaker 1: I did my medical school training in Dublin, Ireland. Towards

458
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:34,760
Speaker 1: the end of your show on Dr Peters, one of

459
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:38,719
Speaker 1: you mentions a concern over a scientific paper with two

460
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:40,880
Speaker 1: authors in which the male author was referred to as

461
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 1: doctor and the female is miss There are three possible

462
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 1: reasons for this one sexism highly likely to the woman

463
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:52,199
Speaker 1: was possibly a medical student or full time researcher and

464
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: not yet a medical doctor when she did the work

465
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,199
Speaker 1: on the paper. I'm gonna pause real quickly. Those are

466
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:01,399
Speaker 1: the two options that we knew about ther Uh in

467
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 1: the show, and the thing that leads me to read

468
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,680
Speaker 1: this letter is now option three. She was a surgeon

469
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:10,400
Speaker 1: from outside the US or Canada to explain three. All

470
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 1: over the world today, medical school graduates are given the

471
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: title doctor. Back in the days before proper sterilization and

472
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,400
Speaker 1: an esthetic techniques allowed for complex surgeries, however, surgeons were

473
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: considered to be lower on the totem pole than physicians.

474
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 1: Surgeons typically did shorter training programs which involved mainly amputations

475
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: and simple procedures, and as their training and expertise were

476
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 1: considered inferior to that of physicians, they were called mr

477
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 1: rather than doctor. And the modern era, surgery has advanced

478
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:41,679
Speaker 1: significantly and became a very respected field within medicine. The

479
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:44,920
Speaker 1: US and Canada began referring to all physicians and surgeons

480
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 1: as doctor, and much of the rest of the world. However,

481
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,359
Speaker 1: surgeries less auspicious beginnings are now mark of pride, and

482
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 1: they actually prefer to be called Mr. Or miss, and

483
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 1: in fact will often get very testy with you, especially

484
00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 1: if you are one of their lowly medical students, if

485
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,520
Speaker 1: you make the mistake of calling them doctor. Currently, when

486
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:07,040
Speaker 1: medical students graduate in Europe, for example, they are called doctor,

487
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: although once those who choose surgery as a career complete

488
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 1: their surgical training they go back to being Mr. Or miss.

489
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: My default don't get yelled at maneuver. When I was

490
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,199
Speaker 1: in school in Ireland and uncertain if the attending slash

491
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,120
Speaker 1: consultant was a physician or surgeon, was to call him

492
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,960
Speaker 1: or her professor, because even if they weren't a professor,

493
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:29,200
Speaker 1: this would be considered a compliment. After this whole explanation, though,

494
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 1: it's highly possible that the publisher of the paper you

495
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 1: read was simply being condescending in sexist. Despite that, I

496
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: thought both. I thought you both would like knowing that

497
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 1: there are other completely plausible and benign explanations that might

498
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,800
Speaker 1: be true as well. Thanks very much and keep up

499
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: the great podcasts. Joan. We got a couple of notes

500
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: alluding to this disparity and how people refer to surgeons

501
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 1: in different parts of the world. And it also came

502
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:56,480
Speaker 1: up on the podcast Sawbones right at the same time

503
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 1: as all of this was happening, so I wanted to

504
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 1: UH to read this letter. It also cracks me up

505
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 1: that she has a default don't get yelled at, because

506
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,320
Speaker 1: we have some of those two on the show. The

507
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: default don't get yelled at many rus I like to

508
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:13,800
Speaker 1: not be yelled at. UH. I actually that. So this

509
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:18,200
Speaker 1: paper was UH from during a time when sexism was

510
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,159
Speaker 1: extremely common in the medical field, but it also was

511
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,360
Speaker 1: written by someone in Great Britain, so it's entirely possible

512
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: that option three was the actual correct option in this UH.

513
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: And one last thing before we close out the show,

514
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 1: I want to thank the folks at Bully Pulpit Games

515
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: for sending us a copy of The Night which is

516
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 1: game which we talked about in our Night which is episode.

517
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 1: I have not gotten to play it yet, but I

518
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,719
Speaker 1: was extremely thrilled when I walked into the office one

519
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 1: day and there it was in an envelope waiting for me.

520
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sending that to us. UH.

521
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 1: We have talked about maybe we should have a House

522
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: Stuff Works Podcasters game session sometime in the relatively near future,

523
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: but I do definitely have it on my soon to

524
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 1: be played list. Um. If you would like to write

525
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 1: to us about this or any other episode, we're at

526
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,840
Speaker 1: History Podcast at how stuffworks dot com. We're also on

527
00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 1: Facebook at Facebook dot com slash miss in history and

528
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 1: on Twitter at miss in History. Our tumbler is missed

529
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 1: in History dot tumbler dot com, and we are also

530
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 1: on Pinterest at pinterest dot com slash miss in History.

531
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 1: If you would like to learn more about, for example,

532
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 1: medicine in the past, you can come to our website,

533
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 1: which is how stuff works dot com that is where

534
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 1: our parent company is located. Or you can come to

535
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 1: our site, which is missed in History dot com, where

536
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: you will find an archive of all episodes at share

537
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: notes and some other cool blog posts and whatnot. You

538
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 1: can do all that and a whole lot more at

539
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com or missed in History dot

540
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics

541
00:29:48,120 --> 00:30:00,480
Speaker 1: because it has to works. Dott six