Despite repeated requests from editor Thomas Niles to write a story for girls, Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) resisted. She had already published poems, stories, pulp fiction, and books, among them her popular “Hospital Sketches,” an account of her short stint as a Civil War nurse in Washington. In her journal, she noted just after beginning what would become her most famous work, “I don’t enjoy this sort of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my sisters; but our queer plays and experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt it.”
After finishing the book in 10 weeks, both Alcott and her editor initially judged her story to be “dull.” The rest of the world disagreed, and, today, “Little Women” is considered a classic, beloved by readers more than 150 years after its publication.
