Marmee & Louisa (64 page)

¹¹²⁸
Abigail’s health was stable: ABA to Frank Sanborn, November 4, 1869,
Letter
s, 500.

¹¹²⁹
as “duenna”: LMA, Notes and Memoranda for 1870,
Journals
, 175.

¹¹³⁰
“old and stupid”: LMA to AAP, July 24, 1970,
Little Women Abroad
, 157, 159.

¹¹³¹
March 31, 1870: SJM, diary for 1870, MFPCL.

¹¹³²
“till I turned”: LMA, 1870,
Journals
, 110, 174.

¹¹³³
“I took leave”: SJM, Diary for 1870, MFPCL.

¹¹³⁴
“erecting a handsome”: Garrison to his wife, September 10, 1864,
Letters of Garrison
, 236–238.

¹¹³⁵
“miscellaneous lot”: CMW, unpublished memoir, private collection.

¹¹³⁶
donated thousands of documents: That gift began the Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection at the Anti-Slavery and Civil War Collections in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell University Library. SJM’s Crandall portrait, which he offered in exchange for the promise of opening Cornell to women,
now hangs in the library holding these collections. Many of SJM’s personal papers were burned in a fire in his daughter Charlotte’s house in Syracuse on August 21, 1890. Regarding the education of women then, “Although only one in fifty women attended college in the late-[nineteenth-]century period, the women who did were the first to receive educations comparable to their brothers’,” Nancy M. Theriot, wrote in
Mothers & Daughters in Nineteenth-century America
, 79.

¹¹³⁷
transform her fictional boys’ school: In the novels
Little Men
and
Jo’s Boys
.

¹¹³⁸
“Calm, bright”: AMA, Diary for 1870, HAP.

¹¹³⁹
“Poor invalid”: ABA, June 28, 1870,
Journals
, 414.

¹¹⁴⁰
copies sold: ABA, April 1, 1870,
Journals
, 406. ABA to LMA, August 1870,
Letters
, 521. ABA to Ellen Chandler, October 3, 1870,
Letters
, 522.

¹¹⁴¹
“destined”: SJM, Diary for 1870, MFPCL.

¹¹⁴²
“As I lie in my bed”: AMAN to AMA, August 10, 1870,
Little Women Abroad
, Shealy, ed., 184.

¹¹⁴³
“between a funeral”: LMA to AMA, October 8, 1870, ibid., 239.

¹¹⁴⁴
“droll dream” in Vevey: August 21, 1870, ibid., 196–97.

¹¹⁴⁵
into Orchard House: ABA to Frank Sanborn, December 3, 1870,
Letters
, 528. ABA later added a nursery for the boys adjacent to the master bedroom at Orchard House, where it remains.

¹¹⁴⁶
“fill my place”: AMA to Lizzie Wells, January 9, 1871, family letters, HAP.

¹¹⁴⁷
“dear little boys”: LMA, January 1871,
Journals
, 177.

¹¹⁴⁸
Plummer School: I am indebted to Catherine Rivard, an expert on AMAN, for the information about the Plummer Farm School. Now known as the Plummer School for Boys, it is on Winter Island across a cove from the easterly point of Salem Neck, connected by a bridge to the mainland. It is still for boys only.

¹¹⁴⁹
Plummer first cousins: The uncles of Caroline Plummer (1780–1854) who could have fathered (or grandfathered) the “Miss Plummer” who was close to AMAN in the 1870s were David, Joseph, William, Samuel, John, and Charles Plummer, all born in the 1750s and 1760s.

¹¹⁵⁰
“wealthy women leave money”: Susan B. Anthony, “The True Woman,” in Ida H. Harper,
Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony
, I, 160.

¹¹⁵¹
“ailing”: AAP to Alfred Whitman, January 29, 1871, family letters, HAP.

¹¹⁵²
“free and happy”: Caroline Ticknor,
May Alcott, A Memoir
, 99.

¹¹⁵³
“feeble”: LMA, July 1871,
Journals
, 178.

¹¹⁵⁴
“not spoiled her”: AAP to Alfred Whitman, June 18, 1871, family letters, HAP.

¹¹⁵⁵
“very sick”: AMA, June 21, 1871, Journal for 1871, HAP.

¹¹⁵⁶
“embraces”: ABA to SJM’s son Joseph May, quoting LMA, July 16, 1871,
Letters
, 536.

¹¹⁵⁷
“best friend”: LMA, July 1871,
Journals
, 179.

¹¹⁵⁸
SJM funeral: ABA to William Harris, July 4, 1871,
Letters
, 535.

¹¹⁵⁹
“creatures to be idolized”: Child, “Samuel J. May,” August 30, 1873,
Woman’s Journal
, 276, in F
irst Woman in the Republic
, 577.

¹¹⁶⁰
“Happy Warrior”: Eulogy of SJM by Charles de B. Mills at “Services in Honor of SJM in Syracuse, July 1871,” published in Boston in 1886, 26–27.

¹¹⁶¹
“unshakeable principles”: Catherine Rivard, email to author, 2009.

¹¹⁶²
“suffragists to-day venerate”: “Tribute to Mr. May,”
The New York Times
, July 1897.

¹¹⁶³
“bearing a pail”: ABA, July 25, 1871,
Journals
, 421–22.

¹¹⁶⁴
“panted for my garden hose”: LMA, September 11, 1870,
Little Women Abroad
, 224.

¹¹⁶⁵
“Reporters”: LMA, July 1872,
Journals
, 183.

¹¹⁶⁶
“strangers begin”: LMA, June 1865,
Journals
, 147.

¹¹⁶⁷
“indifferent”: ABA, August 8, 1878,
Journals
, 491.

¹¹⁶⁸
“straightforward”: Child,
First Woman in the Republic
, 589.

¹¹⁶⁹
“such gifted daughters”: Child,
Selected Letters, 1817–1880
, 535.

¹¹⁷⁰
“Concord and Her Authors”: Shepard, Notes on 1870 and 1871,
ABA Journals
, 406 and 417.

¹¹⁷¹
“frail”: ABA to Ellen Chandler, August 28, 1871,
Letters
, 537.

¹¹⁷²
“Sylvia’s perplexities”: LMA, Preface to
Moods
(1882), in Stern,
From Blood & Thunder
, 195.

¹¹⁷³
“Mother is to be cosy”: LMA, December 1871,
Journals
, 179.

¹¹⁷⁴
“quaint” recollections: Stern,
From Blood & Thunder
, 225.

¹¹⁷⁵
“a picture for a background”: ABA to William Harris, September 2, 1869,
Letters
, 490.

¹¹⁷⁶
“Don’t wonder the boy”: LMA, September 1872,
Journals
, 183.

¹¹⁷⁷
“boldness and truthfulness”: ABA, August 30, 1872,
Journals
, 427.

¹¹⁷⁸
Feeling somewhat better: ABA to Ellen Chandler, September 3, 1872,
Letters
, 562. Louisa stayed at “Mrs. May’s boarding house” at 7 Allston Street, probably in Dorchester, possibly with May relatives.

¹¹⁷⁹
Bronson went west: ABA to Mary Adams, October 4, 1872,
Letters
, 565.

¹¹⁸⁰
“Another year is closing”: AMA, December 1872,
Journals
, HAP.

¹¹⁸¹
“Under Louisa’s supervision”: ABA to Ellen Chandler, July 6, 1875,
Letters
, 599.

¹¹⁸²
“writing stories for the millions”: ABA, June 9, 1873,
Journals
, 435.

¹¹⁸³
unpublished novel
Work
: ABA to William Harris, September 6, 1873,
Letters
, 605.

¹¹⁸⁴
weeks at her bedside: ABA to Ellen Chandler, August 8, 1873,
Letters
, 601.

¹¹⁸⁵
“dropsy of the brain”: AAP to Alfred Whitman, February 2, 1874, family letters, HAP.

¹¹⁸⁶
“can safely leave her mother”: ABA to ADD, August 5, 1873,
Letters
, 600.

¹¹⁸⁷
on parallel paths: Cynthia Barton, author of a biography of Abigail, said in 2009, “It seems likely” that Louisa sometimes resented her parents for having to care for them during these years.

¹¹⁸⁸
“the only paper I take”: LMA, in Stern,
From Blood & Thunder
, 147.

¹¹⁸⁹
“Tell her I am seventy-three”: Ibid., 154.

¹¹⁹⁰
“I am very lame”: LMA to Mary Mapes Dodge, October 8, [1874?], Stern,
From Blood & Thunder
, 220.

¹¹⁹¹
“the prospect of wintering”: ABA to Mary Adams, October 27, 1873,
Letters
, 616.

¹¹⁹²
“I find myself inevitably alone”: AMA,
Journals
, January 25, 1875, HAP.

¹¹⁹³
May had purchased: ABA, May 11, 1875,
Journals
, 458. AMAN now earned more than two thousand dollars a year from her art and teaching.

¹¹⁹⁴
“so deep and shady”: AMAN to AMA, November 1976, and AMAN to her family, spring 1878, Ticknor,
May Alcott, A Memoir
, 143, 172.

¹¹⁹⁵
Abigail remarked to Bronson: ABA to AMAN, April 23, 1875,
Letters
, 686. ABA quotes AMA.

¹¹⁹⁶
only Louisa’s mother had seen: Ticknor,
May Alcott, A Memoir
, 190.

¹¹⁹⁷
Nathaniel Hawthorne: He and LMA were not only neighbors but also shared Salem witch judge ancestry. The Mays descended from Samuel Sewall, and Hawthorne descended from Sewall’s 1692 colleague, Judge John Hathorne. Nathaniel is said to have changed the spelling of his surname to distance himself from his ancestor, who never repented for Salem. Hawthorne died in 1864 while visiting in New Hampshire; his family still lived next door to the Alcotts.

¹¹⁹⁸
“praised and criticized”: LMA, April 1877,
Journals
, 204.

¹¹⁹⁹
May ancestors: ABA to Rev. Samuel May (AMA’s cousin), October 7, 1875,
Letters
, 657.

¹²⁰⁰
Rhoda Lawrence: It is not clear if Louisa already knew Rhoda Lawrence in 1868 when she gave the March family’s neighbors the surname Laurence. Many scholars believe Rhoda Lawrence was a model for Dr. Nan in
Jo’s Boys
. Louisa’s cousin Lucy Sewall, a medical doctor and SES’s daughter, may also have inspired Dr. Nan.

¹²⁰¹
“I very much want to help”: LMA to SES, September 28 [1875],
Letters
, 196.

¹²⁰²
“Life was always a puzzle”: LMA, January 1874,
Journals
, 191.

¹²⁰³
Louisa and Abigail arrived at the town center: LMA, “Woman’s Part in the Concord Celebration,” in
Woman’s Journal
, May 1, 1875.

¹²⁰⁴
“enjoyed showing off”: LMA to her cousin Frederick W. G. May, April 20 [13], 1875,
Letters
, 191–92.

¹²⁰⁵
Woman’s Journal
article: LMA, “Woman’s Part in the Concord Celebration,” Stern,
LMA: Signature of Reform
, 198–202.

¹²⁰⁶
share the housekeeping: ABA, October 8, 1876,
Journals
, 40. “. . . cares of housekeeping falling to Anna and Louisa.”

¹²⁰⁷
“Mother & Father are now 75”: AAP to Alfred Whitman, 1875, family letters, HAP.

¹²⁰⁸
“few inherited ail[ment]s”: ABA, January 25, 1876,
Journals
, 465.

¹²⁰⁹
Wilkinson family: Charlotte’s daughter Jo, Josephine May Wilkinson, was born Oct. 22, 1862, “named after Gran’pa May,” Colonel Joseph May, and died March 3, 1943. Little Abigail May Wilkinson, the baby named after AMA, died on December 21, 1876, at age two. CMW gave birth to nine children over twenty-one years, and was forty-three when her last child, Katherine May Wilkinson, was born on Oct. 24, 1876. Seven of her children survived to adulthood and six to old age, the last, my Aunt K, dying in New York City in 1959.

¹²¹⁰
“hordes of beaming girls”: LMA, in Stern,
From Blood & Thunder
, 148.

¹²¹¹
“finally had to run”: LMA to
Women’s Journal
, October 23, 1875.

¹²¹²
More than ten thousand copies: ABA to AMA’s cousin Samuel May, October 7, 1875,
Letters
, 658.

¹²¹³
“permanently restored”: ABA to C. L. Cole, December 2, 1875,
Letters
, 661.

¹²¹⁴
“co[u]sin dinner”: LMA to ABA, December 12, 1875,
Letters
, 206.

¹²¹⁵
“Sewalls wear well”: LMA to AMA, January 1, 1876,
Letters
, 214.

¹²¹⁶
“her face aglow with emotion”: Maria S. Porter,
The New England Magazine
, reprinted in Porter’s
Recollections of Louisa May Alcott, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Robert Browning
. The Old South Meeting House was the 1730 stone structure built on the site of the seventeenth-century wooden South Church in which Judge Samuel Sewall repented in 1607. The stone building still stands today and is open to the public.

¹²¹⁷
“A tablet to Grandfather May”: LMA, March 1874,
Journals
, 192.

¹²¹⁸
“sober & sad”: LMA, July & August, 1880,
Journals
, 226.

¹²¹⁹
she waved a handkerchief: ABA, January 31, 1880,
Journals
, 516.