Louisa M. Alcott, who has for some years past occupied
much the same place among American writers of fiction that Miss Yonge occupies here, died on Tuesday, two days only after her father, himself a notable teacher and writer on educational subjects. Miss Alcott's first book was published in 1855; but it was not till "Little Women" came out in 1868 that she became well known,—at least, on this side of the Atlantic. The Spectator may claim, we believe, to have been one of the first, if not the very first, of English journals to recognise her literary merits. She had been a hospital nurse during the Civil War, and she seemed to gain, as so many American writers have gained, an inspiration from its bitter experiences. Her "little women" were the children of a citizen-soldier from the North, and she never wrote better than when she touched on the hopes and fears which thrilled so many households in those days. These heroines, partly drawn, we believe, from life, grew up under her hands, and for twenty years hundreds of thousands of readers have followed their fortunes, and the fortunes of another generation of their kindred, with an unflagging interest- It was little more than a year ago that Miss Alcott, in "Joe's Boys" (" Joe " was the leader of the little flock), reluctantly closed the family chronicle. In a humorous little piece of autobiography, she describes with a not unkindly complaint the trouble which the fame of these children of her pen had brought upon her. Miss Alcott was in her fifty-sixth year.
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