


                          FORWARD

               LOUISA MAY ALCOTT  1832-1888

     Louisa May Alcott's novel brings to life vividly the life
of New England during the nineteenth century.   A  life  that
was tranquil, secure, and productive.

     It is little wonder,  for she drew on her own and on her
family's experiences for her work.   As one of four daughters
growing up in Boston.

     At the age of eight, she moved with her family to nearby
Concord.  There she spent the happiest  years of  her younger
life, even though she experienced the constant threat of pov-
erty.

     She counted as friends the children of Hawthorne and Em-
erson.  The Alcott was only a modest cottage,  but  the girls
made use of a neighboring barn to  perform  plays written  by
Louisa May.

     She was educated at home, and became a school teacher in
Boston. She saw her first story printed in a Boston newspaper
at the age of twenty.  Her  first  full-length book  appeared
two years later.

     Interrupting her career as a writer,she served as a nurse
in a Washington hospital during the Civil War.

     The thing that pleased her most about her writing, as  she
became more and more well known, was the fact that sales of her
books helped to make life more comfortable and less of a  daily
struggle for her parents in their later years.

     LITTLE WOMEN was published in 1869, and has gone on to be-
come one of America's classics.

     This copy of LITTLE WOMEN has been transposed to disk and
is supplied by  NEW WAVE PUBLISHERS,  2103  N. LIBERTY STREET,
PORTLAND, OR  97217-4971

UPLOADED FROM ELVIRA'S PINNACLE CLUB  286-5577  7 AM  - 10 PM  

