What would Louisa May do?

Timeless life lessons from the author of Little Women

Welcome to another Literary Ladies Lite Sunday edition! Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) imparted wisdom in her fiction as well as in her personal writings and interviews. Here's a sampling of life lessons from Louisa May Alcott, a woman who worked hard and loved her family fiercely.

Best known for Little Women, she conducted her career as a professional determined to profit from her pen. In her life and writings, Alcott promoted women’s rights and campaigned for women’s suffrage. Her feminist views were wise and timeless.

Her views were espoused by her lead characters, strong young women who wanted more from life than to get married and have babies. She and her family were ardent abolitionists, a view that wasn't as widely accepted in Massachusetts as one might think.

Though Alcott claimed that her greatest reward was the esteem of the “young folks” who were her readers, she was never modest in her demands to be paid what she felt she was worth, and lived to see her work earn a fortune. Most important to her was to make her family, especially seeing to the comforts of her beloved mother — who, like her fictional counterpart, she called Marmee.

"I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and do well we have a right to, and I don’t think any one will deny us."