My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa’s Mother
Laura Dern, who plays Marmee in the Little Women film, calls it “a beautiful book of letters.”
Little Women’s “Marmee” is one of the most recognizable mothers in American literature. But the real woman behind the fiction — Louisa May Alcott’s own mother, Abigail — has for more than a century remained shrouded in mystery. Scholars believed that her papers were burned by her daughter and husband, as they claimed, and that little additional information survived.
Until now. When Abigail’s biographer and greatniece Eve LaPlante found a trove of letters and diaries in an attic trunk, a window opened once more onto the life of this woman who has for too long been hiding plain sight. Exploring the archives of Alcott family material, LaPlante discovered a treasure tove of writing that until now were largely ignored. No self-effacing housewife, Abigail was a passionate writer and thinker in her own right, and a feminist far ahead of her time. Abigail embraced abolition long before her famous, idealist husband and harbored fugitive slaves in her home. She petitioned the government for women’s suffrage. She disdained the institution of marriage as demeaning and even dangerous to women. She taught her daughters the importance of supporting themselves, and dreamed of a day when a woman, like a man, could enjoy both a family and a career.
Here at last, in her own words, is this extraordinary woman’s story, brought to the public for the first time. Full of wit, charm, and astonishing wisdom, Abigail’s private writings offer a moving, intimate portrait of a mother, wife, sister, and a fierce intellect that demands to be heard.
ORDER NOW at: Amazon Barnes & Noble IndieBound Books-a-Million
“One of the top 25 books of 2012.”
— Seattle Times
“LaPlante’s uneathing of the forgotten papers of her ancestor, Abigail May Alcott, mother of the revered author of Little Women, generated her
mother-daughter biography, Marmee & Louisa, and this first collection of Abigail’s writings, including autobiographical sketches, journal entries, and letters. Of particular significance is Abigail’s correspondence with her brother, Samuel Joseph May, a prominent abolitionist. LaPlante organizes this eye-opening and vibrant volume by such subjects as ‘Motherhood’ and ‘Employment,’ but these headings give little indication of the lively intelligence and unquenchable spirit at work as Abigail expresses love for her children (baby Louisa is ‘a sprightly merry little puss’), her belief in good works, and her despair over the deprivations that prevent her from living a life of the mind: ‘If trial and friction make strong and bright, I shall be strength and brilliancy personified.’ Indeed, Abigail is resilient, loyal, ‘theatrical, poignant, passionate, and often satirical,’ devoted to liberty and Louisa’s literary efforts. Sleuth and scholar LaPlante has immeasurably enriched American letters by reclaiming an American writer and thinker who has for too long been ignored.”
— Booklist
“LaPlante starts out with a home team advantage: She’s a descendant of the Alcotts, and her book opens with a scene every biographer dreams of, describing how she came upon old trunks in her own mother’s attic filled with Alcott family personal papers. Some of Abigail’s writings, thought to have been destroyed, are collected in...My Heart is Boundless. Judging by the excerpts..., Abigail was a tart observer, especially of gender inequalities: Writing about a visit to a Shaker Utopian community in 1843, Abigail notes that the Shaker men have ‘a fat, sleek, comfortable look...[but among] the women there is a still, awkward reserve that belongs to neither sublime resignation or divine hope.’ Throughout her journals, Abigail is charmingly blunt, confessing, among other things, her ‘disrelish of cooking’ and her ‘enjoyment’ of her separations from her husband.”
— Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air
“Vibrant ... For the first time, Abigail May Alcott’s own writings — once thought to have been destroyed — have been compiled and published. LaPlante has edited and lightly annotated a rich selection of letters, journal entries, and sketches that demonstrate, in Abigail’s own words, the spirited, complicated, visionary woman she was. Many of her reflections and worries and prayers ring as sonorously today as when Abigail wrote them nearly two centuries ago: how to find one’s voice, how to live true to one’s ideals, how to engage with life’s problems (even at her most destitute, she boasts, ‘I could stop to throw my stone of indignation at Congress’), and how to raise the next generation.”
— Seattle Times
“This thoroughly engaging collection of Abigail May Alcott’s warm and lively writings...shows her to be a witty, eloquent, thoughtful, and captivating writer and correspondent ... Most fascinating are the excerpts from Abigail’s reports as a welfare worker in Boston; her desire to provide work and just wages for the poor along with relief ring a startlingly contemporary bell. Though one could certainly read this volume on its own, LaPlante’s companion biography, Marmee & Louisa (pubbing simultaneously), will undoubtedly help to fill in gaps ... One hopes that further volumes of [Abigail’s] extant work might one day be released to shed even further light on this remarkable woman.”
— Publishers Weekly
“A valuable companion to Marmee & Louisa.”
— Yankee
“This revealing collection of Abigail May Alcott’s writings provides previously unknown details of the life of a 19th-century daughter, sister, wife and mother who associated with transcendental luminaries, suppressed her own dreams to provide for her family, inspired her famous daughter Louisa, and remained an ardent reformer for abolition and women’s rights. Until now, little has been known of Abigail’s life ... While writing...Marmee & Louisa (2012), LaPlante uncovered surviving, untapped pages of Abigail’s journals and letters in archival and private collections, as well as a newly discovered cache of letters ... Organized chronologically, Abigail’s diaries and letters disclose an intelligent, self-sacrificing, tender woman whose moral conviction and strong character kept her engaged in social issues despite her tragic marriage ... Helpful annotations and a chronology provide further contextual detail. A compelling documentary portrait of the real Marmee, whose life provided the impetus for Little Women and who emerges here as a noteworthy woman in her own right.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Laura Dern, who plays Marmee in the Little Women film, calls it “a beautiful book of letters.”
Little Women’s “Marmee” is one of the most recognizable mothers in American literature. But the real woman behind the fiction — Louisa May Alcott’s own mother, Abigail — has for more than a century remained shrouded in mystery. Scholars believed that her papers were burned by her daughter and husband, as they claimed, and that little additional information survived.
Until now. When Abigail’s biographer and greatniece Eve LaPlante found a trove of letters and diaries in an attic trunk, a window opened once more onto the life of this woman who has for too long been hiding plain sight. Exploring the archives of Alcott family material, LaPlante discovered a treasure tove of writing that until now were largely ignored. No self-effacing housewife, Abigail was a passionate writer and thinker in her own right, and a feminist far ahead of her time. Abigail embraced abolition long before her famous, idealist husband and harbored fugitive slaves in her home. She petitioned the government for women’s suffrage. She disdained the institution of marriage as demeaning and even dangerous to women. She taught her daughters the importance of supporting themselves, and dreamed of a day when a woman, like a man, could enjoy both a family and a career.
Here at last, in her own words, is this extraordinary woman’s story, brought to the public for the first time. Full of wit, charm, and astonishing wisdom, Abigail’s private writings offer a moving, intimate portrait of a mother, wife, sister, and a fierce intellect that demands to be heard.
ORDER NOW at: Amazon Barnes & Noble IndieBound Books-a-Million
“One of the top 25 books of 2012.”
— Seattle Times
“LaPlante’s uneathing of the forgotten papers of her ancestor, Abigail May Alcott, mother of the revered author of Little Women, generated her
mother-daughter biography, Marmee & Louisa, and this first collection of Abigail’s writings, including autobiographical sketches, journal entries, and letters. Of particular significance is Abigail’s correspondence with her brother, Samuel Joseph May, a prominent abolitionist. LaPlante organizes this eye-opening and vibrant volume by such subjects as ‘Motherhood’ and ‘Employment,’ but these headings give little indication of the lively intelligence and unquenchable spirit at work as Abigail expresses love for her children (baby Louisa is ‘a sprightly merry little puss’), her belief in good works, and her despair over the deprivations that prevent her from living a life of the mind: ‘If trial and friction make strong and bright, I shall be strength and brilliancy personified.’ Indeed, Abigail is resilient, loyal, ‘theatrical, poignant, passionate, and often satirical,’ devoted to liberty and Louisa’s literary efforts. Sleuth and scholar LaPlante has immeasurably enriched American letters by reclaiming an American writer and thinker who has for too long been ignored.”
— Booklist
“LaPlante starts out with a home team advantage: She’s a descendant of the Alcotts, and her book opens with a scene every biographer dreams of, describing how she came upon old trunks in her own mother’s attic filled with Alcott family personal papers. Some of Abigail’s writings, thought to have been destroyed, are collected in...My Heart is Boundless. Judging by the excerpts..., Abigail was a tart observer, especially of gender inequalities: Writing about a visit to a Shaker Utopian community in 1843, Abigail notes that the Shaker men have ‘a fat, sleek, comfortable look...[but among] the women there is a still, awkward reserve that belongs to neither sublime resignation or divine hope.’ Throughout her journals, Abigail is charmingly blunt, confessing, among other things, her ‘disrelish of cooking’ and her ‘enjoyment’ of her separations from her husband.”
— Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air
“Vibrant ... For the first time, Abigail May Alcott’s own writings — once thought to have been destroyed — have been compiled and published. LaPlante has edited and lightly annotated a rich selection of letters, journal entries, and sketches that demonstrate, in Abigail’s own words, the spirited, complicated, visionary woman she was. Many of her reflections and worries and prayers ring as sonorously today as when Abigail wrote them nearly two centuries ago: how to find one’s voice, how to live true to one’s ideals, how to engage with life’s problems (even at her most destitute, she boasts, ‘I could stop to throw my stone of indignation at Congress’), and how to raise the next generation.”
— Seattle Times
“This thoroughly engaging collection of Abigail May Alcott’s warm and lively writings...shows her to be a witty, eloquent, thoughtful, and captivating writer and correspondent ... Most fascinating are the excerpts from Abigail’s reports as a welfare worker in Boston; her desire to provide work and just wages for the poor along with relief ring a startlingly contemporary bell. Though one could certainly read this volume on its own, LaPlante’s companion biography, Marmee & Louisa (pubbing simultaneously), will undoubtedly help to fill in gaps ... One hopes that further volumes of [Abigail’s] extant work might one day be released to shed even further light on this remarkable woman.”
— Publishers Weekly
“A valuable companion to Marmee & Louisa.”
— Yankee
“This revealing collection of Abigail May Alcott’s writings provides previously unknown details of the life of a 19th-century daughter, sister, wife and mother who associated with transcendental luminaries, suppressed her own dreams to provide for her family, inspired her famous daughter Louisa, and remained an ardent reformer for abolition and women’s rights. Until now, little has been known of Abigail’s life ... While writing...Marmee & Louisa (2012), LaPlante uncovered surviving, untapped pages of Abigail’s journals and letters in archival and private collections, as well as a newly discovered cache of letters ... Organized chronologically, Abigail’s diaries and letters disclose an intelligent, self-sacrificing, tender woman whose moral conviction and strong character kept her engaged in social issues despite her tragic marriage ... Helpful annotations and a chronology provide further contextual detail. A compelling documentary portrait of the real Marmee, whose life provided the impetus for Little Women and who emerges here as a noteworthy woman in her own right.”
— Kirkus Reviews