Who was Louisa May Alcott and what is her famous book Little Women about?

Women growing up in 19th Century Massachusetts were not expected to be particularly influential, or to fight for human rights, but Louisa May Alcott, one of the best-known female authors of the time, was rarely one to conform to type.

Alcott, who was born 184 years ago on Tuesday, became a famous feminist and campaigned for the abolition of slavery. She is best known, however, for writing Little Women, the iconic children's book that inspired millions.

Google has commemorated her birthday with a special Doodle displaying the characters of Little Women, who were based on Alcott's own family.

Who was Louisa May Alcott?

Alcott was born in 1832 in Pennsylvania, the second-eldest of four girls, and from the start enjoyed an unusual life. Her father, who embraced unconventional teaching techniques, moved the family to Boston early in Alcott's life and she grew up among intellectuals of the Transcendentalist movement, which promoted intuition and goodness over rationality and hard evidence.

However, amid financial struggles Alcott was forced to take on various jobs from a young age, working as a seamstress and teacher among other things. This made writing a creative outlet for her and would also influence her later work.

Alcott kept on writing even when volunteering as a nurse in the American Civil War, which broke out in 1861, and wrote vehemently anti-slavery articles and books after the war ended. However, she hit upon mainstream success when she turned her hand to children's writing.

Little Women

Alcott's first and biggest success was Little Women, a semi-autobiographical account of her life growing up with her sisters, which is still a popular book to this day.

The book, which traces the lives of four sisters through to adulthood, dealing with the various strains of growing up and then finding themselves in different adulthood situations.

The book, in which the four women all have unique identities, may seem overly moralistic and formal by today's standards, but set a mark for female individualism in the 1860s. The women were at the centre of the book and fully formed characters who grappled with their own choices, even within traditional domestic roles.

Fundamentally, though, the book became a classic coming of age title for millions of girls with relatable and interesting characters.

Legacy

Little Women was written in two parts, and was so successful initially that it sold out and there was voracious demand for more tales of the characters' lives. Alcott wrote follow-ups in Little Men and Jo's Boys over the next 20 years, although it is Little Women that has been a children's classic for almost 150 years and has been adapted for screen and stage multiple times.

Unlike the characters in her books, Alcott never married, saying that she never fell in love with any man. She struggled with illness and died at just 55 from a stroke.

Google Doodler Sophie Diao drew the Doodle based on the characters of Little Women, with Jo, the character running through the middle with papers flying everywhere, based on Alcott herself.