By Jovan Stipić

In our previous blog post, we focused on the real-life events that inspired "To Kill a Mockingbird". Following in those footsteps, we will turn our attention to another book with a fascinating backstory, "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. Just in time to celebrate 154 years of her finishing the book.

Neither Alcott nor her publisher was enthusiastic about the story's publication, citing that the book was too simple. Deciding to go forward with it only after agreeing that it was "better than she had expected" and that "it could sell well."

One would say that such a book would fall into obscurity rather quickly, not becoming the phenomenon it is today. Thankfully the public loved the first part of the story, released on September 30th, 1868, with the second part following not long afterwards.

But how do the characters from the book compare to their real-life counterparts? Mainly Alcott's sisters and her family? The real stories might be a bit darker than presented in the book, yet even that might have inspired Alcott, accenting the more positive parts of their lives and sharing them with others.

Alcott's family was destitute. There were points in her life, as described in her biography, where they would go days on end without food, starving most of the week. Money was one of the main reasons she wrote Little Women. She said, "Money is the means and the ends of my mercenary existence." The main reason was the fact that her father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was many things, psychologist, author, and poet, but not what someone would call a "provider".

He was described as "a balloon held to the ground by his family.' Compared to them, one could say that the March family is downright wealthy. Sure, they have their financial problems in the books, but nothing close to Alcott's troubles.

But, between these two families lie several truths. For example, the scene where the March family make breakfast for the Hummel's on Christmas was based on a true story. Though impoverished, the Alcott family would almost always give food away on Christmas, even when that meant they would have to go without. Something that all four sisters took to heart later in life.

Meg, the oldest in the book, is also based on Louisa's eldest sister, Anna May Alcott. Anna was described as a "true Victorian lady", accepting all the proper ideals of womanhood at the time. Though, while proper in public, she and Louisa were known to go wild on stage. She formed the Consort Dramatic Union, known today as Concord Players, where she met her future husband, John Bridge Pratt. Unfortunately, after sharing their lives for ten years, John passed away in 1870. Though she never remarried, she spent her last years with her family, caring for her sons and her niece "Lulu".

Amy, the youngest of the March sisters, is upon Louisa's youngest sister Abigail. With the book's success, she paid for Abigail's higher education in Europe, where she studied art in London and Rome. She did this even though Louisa didn't like Abigail's art, going so far as to say, "These sketches, from a student's portfolio, claim no merit as works of art but are only valuable as souvenirs."

Settling finally in Paris, she met her husband Ernest Nieriker in 1878 and had a daughter a year later named Louisa May, nicknamed Lulu. But not before having her big break, when she had a painting of hers accepted into the Paris Salon in 1877.

According to Abigail's journal, these were the happiest years of her life. She spent them with Ernest whilst enjoying painting, music, and the pure companionship they had shared, which makes the whole story sadder as Abigail passed away in 1879, likely from childbed fever. Lulu spent several years with her aunt, Anna, before she too passed away.

Beth was the only one to keep her name from her real-life counterpart, Elizabeth. She was described as shy in Louisa's diaries, spending most of her time knitting or with kittens. Like her movie counterpart, she got sick with scarlet fever after holding a sick baby from a poor family for too long while delivering a care package. While she did recover, Elizabeth was permanently weakened by the disease. She passed away two years later, at only 22 years old.

Unlike the other characters, Laurie is a bit more mysterious than his real-life counterpart. Jokingly, Louisa had said that "every lad I knew claims the character." Though today it is believed two different people inspired him.

The "tender" part of Laurie was inspired by Alfred Whitman, with whom Louisa had a very long friendship. She even wrote to him, saying, "I put you into my story as one of the best and dearest lads I ever knew!"

As Louisa had described him, the other "fun" part of Laurie was based on a Polish young man she met in Paris named Ladislas Wisniewski. In the same letter to Alfred, she also mentioned this by saying, "You are the sober half, and my Ladislas… is the gay whirligig half."

Funnily enough, Louisa never married, opting to "row her canoe", as she described. Nevertheless, the most apparent beauty of her book is that she had so many people dear to her in it. One who writes of people she loves will always love writing and, most importantly, about them.

Even Louisa said so herself when the book was published, describing it as "simple and true, for we lived most of it; and if it succeeds, that will be the reason for it."