VOICE ONE:

Louisa May Alcott wrote books for adults, as well as children. She published these under another name -- A. M. Barnard. These books were published before “Little Women” made her famous. They were very different from her children's stories. They were about love, power, and unhappiness. They have been published again in the United States.

One book is called “Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott.” The book includes four mystery stories. Another is called “The Lost Stories of Louisa May Alcott.” These stories are about love, betrayal, and illegal drugs.

VOICE TWO:

Alcott wrote a story called “A Long Fatal Love Chase.” It is about an independent young woman. She marries an older man who already has a wife. She flees from him. He follows her throughout Europe. The book tells of insanity, violence, and death. Louisa May Alcott tried to get the book published in eighteen sixty-six. The publisher rejected it. He said it was too shocking.

A man who collected Alcott materials found the unpublished story in a bookstore in New York City. He bought it for about fifty thousand dollars a few years ago. He reportedly sold it to a maJor American publisher for about one million dollars.

VOICE ONE:

Louisa May Alcott wrote many exciting stories about love. Yet she never married. She continued to support her family during the last years of her life. In fact, she cared for the young daughter of her sister, May, who died in eighteen seventy-nine.

Alcott was involved in the movements to end slavery and to gain voting rights for women. She wrote that "I . . . take more pride in the very small help we Alcotts could give than in all the books I ever wrote. " Louisa May Alcott died in eighteen eighty-eight.

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VOICE TWO:

Louisa May Alcott's most famous book, “Little Women”, tells the story of the March family of Concord, Massachusetts. The story begins during the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. Mister March is away from home. He is with the troops of the Union Army. He is a religious worker. Missus March is raising her four daughters by herself.

The March family is very close. They do many things together. They do not have much money. They suffer shortages caused by the war. Yet they share what they have with people who are in need.

VOICE ONE:

The four daughters are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They are strong, brave, and loving. Jo is the most important person in the book. She is smart. She has a good imagination. She writes stories. And she creates plays that the sisters perform together.

Jo also is independent. She chooses a non-traditional life. She goes to New York to become a writer. There she meets an older man, a professor. She returns home to care for her parents. She writes stories that become very popular. Later, Jo marries the professor. Together, they establish a school.

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VOICE TWO:

The March family in “Little Women” is very much like Louisa May Alcott's family. Her sisters are like the sisters in the book. And the leading person, Jo, is like Louisa. Jo must work to support her family, just as Louisa had to do. One of Jo's Jobs is to help a family member, an old woman called Aunt March. Jo does not really like Aunt March. But she loves the old woman's house, especially the large library with hundreds of books. This is how Alcott writes about this place:

VOICE ONE:

"The dim, dusty room. . . the cozy chairs, the globes, and, best of all, the wilderness of books in which she could wander where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her. The moment Aunt March took her nap, or was busy with company, Jo hurried to this quiet space, and, curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures, like a regular bookworm. "

All of these wonderful books put great ideas into Jo's head. Jo wanted to do something very wonderful, Alcott writes: "What it was she had no idea as yet, but left it for time to tell her. "

VOICE TWO:

Jo's beloved sister Beth dies young, as Alcott's own sister Beth did. Jo is very unhappy. Her mother tells her to write because that always made her happy. Jo writes a story "that went straight to the hearts of those who read it. " Jo cannot understand how her simple little story became so popular.

Her father explains, "There is truth in it, Jo, that's the secret; . . . You have found your style at last. You wrote with no thought of fame or money, and put your heart into it. . . ; You have had the bitter, now comes the sweet. "

VOICE ONE:

Louisa May Alcott's book, “Little Women”, is still extremely popular. Women who read the book when they were young often give it to their daughters. Some famous American women even claim they decided to become writers after reading how Jo March became a writer in “Little Women”.

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VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.