By Fiona Hurley

Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Women and its sequels have been beloved by young (and not-so-young) readers for over a century, passed on by many Aunties to their nieces. Louisa famously based the four March girls on herself and her three sisters. However, it is less well-known that Louisa dedicated her last children's book, Lulu's Library, to the niece that she raised as her own.

In Little Women, Louisa’s mother becomes Marmee, while her sisters Anna, Lizzie and May become Meg, Beth and Amy. Louisa herself becomes Jo, the imaginative tomboy straining at the narrow roles assigned to women. The real Louisa was an abolitionist who served as a nurse during the Civil War. She argued for women’s rights and was the first woman to register as a voter in Massachusetts. She grew up in poverty but made a fortune from her writing, the J.K. Rowling of her day.

Jo March married at the end of Little Women, but Louisa May Alcott remained single for the rest of her life. There are indications that she had lesbian feelings, as she said in an interview:

I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man's soul put by some freak of nature into a woman's body...because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.

Her older sister, Anna (Meg in Little Women), married and had two sons, Frederic and John. Louisa was close to her nephews, especially after their father died. She paid for their schooling, and they may have inspired the Little Women sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys.

But it was her young niece, Lulu, who stole her heart. Louisa's youngest sister, May (Amy in Little Women) was studying art in London when she met and married Ernst, a Swiss banker. May gave birth to a girl, named Louisa after her famous sister, but tragically died of postpartum fever.

The baby, nicknamed Lulu, was sent to America to be raised by her namesake Auntie. Louisa met the ten-month-old Lulu at Boston wharf, accompanied by a nurse and by Ernst's sister, Sophie. She described the meeting:

At last the Captain appeared, & in his arms a little yellow-haired thing in white, with its hat off as it looked about with lively blue eyes...I held out my arms...She looked at me for a moment, then came to me saying “Marmar?” in a wistful way, and nestling close as if she had found her own people & home at last, as she had, thank Heaven!

By this time, Louisa was suffering from poor health, but her niece gave her a new lease of life. Lulu nicknamed her “Aunt Wee.” Together, Lulu and “Aunt Wee” enjoyed strolls through Boston; Louisa loved to watch her niece run wild on the Common. She and Anna bought a summer cottage in Nonquitt, where Lulu and the boys spent many happy days. Louisa told stories about a Chinese girl “Lu Sing” (Lulu) and her Aunties “An Wee” (Louisa) and “An Ah” (Anna).

It seems that Louisa was living out the words that she had written in Little Women:

Just recollect the good aunts who have not only lectured and fussed, but nursed and petted, too often without thanks, the scrapes they have helped you out of, the tips they have given you from their small store, the stitches the patient old fingers have set for you, the steps the willing old feet have taken…. If death, almost the only power that can part mother and son, should rob you of yours, you will be sure to find a tender welcome and maternal cherishing from some Aunt Priscilla.

One of Louisa’s last publications was a collection of short stories called Lulu’s Library. The preface read:

All but three of these stories were told to my little niece during our quiet hour before bedtime. They became such favorites with her and her friends that I wrote them down in several small blue books, and called them LULU'S LIBRARY. Having nothing else to offer this year, I have collected them in one volume as a Christmas gift to my boys and girls from their old friend

AUNT JO.

CONCORD, August, 1885.

Louisa May Alcott died in 1888. She willed that the income from her books would be shared by her sister Anna, her nephews Frederic and John, and her 8-year-old niece Lulu. But her greatest legacy would be the stories that she passed on to so many generations.

Published: September 3, 2013