Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel, "Little Women," published in 1868, and its sequels "Little Men" (1871) and "Jo's Boys" (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. After Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, she worked to help support the family from an early age, and also sought an outlet in writing.
