Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) was brought up in Pennsylvania USA. She turned to writing in order
to supplement the family income and had many short stories published in magazines and
newspapers. Then in 1862 during the height of the American Civil War Louisa went to
Georgetown to work as a nurse but she contracted typhoid. Out of her experiences she wrote
Hospital Sketches (1864) which won wide acclaim followed by an adult novel Moods. She was
reluctant to write a children's book but then realized that in herself and her three sisters
she had the perfect models. The result was Little Women (1868) which became the earliest
American children's novel to become a classic
