december9–22, 2019 | newyork 1031870
PAPARAZZI PROBLEMS
Alcott’s Orchard House in
Concord, Massachusetts,
becomes a pilgrimage site for
devoted readers. Desperate for
a glimpse of the almost-40-
year-old novelist, newspapers
send sketch artists to sit
on her fence and try to
capture her likeness. Alcott
says she’s considered turning
a garden hose on them.SPRING 1868
SHE NEEDED THE MONEY
Louisa May Alcott, who grew up in Massachusetts
in a family of abolitionists and was taught by Henry
David Thoreau, had been writing saucy fiction
under a pen name (stories like “Pauline’s Passion and
Punishment”) when her publisher suggested she
write a book about girls. Her first thought? “Never
liked girls nor knew many, except my sisters.”
So she based her book on them (she was Jo).SPRING 1869
BOOK TWO
As part two comes out, part-
one sales reach such a fever
pitch that when Alcott goes
to visit her publisher, she
thinks his staff is packing
to shutter the office. Turns
out the boxes are stuffed
with copies of Little Women.
Alcott’s publisher had
told her to name any
amount and he’d cut her
a check: She returns home
with a thousand bucks.FALL 1868
BLOCKBUSTER
The first part of Little Women
(up until Mr. March returns
home from the Civil War) is
published and sells out
its initial run of 2,000
books in two weeks. She
quickly sets to work on a
follow-up. (They were eventually
combined into one book.)1998
LE DONNE
PICCOLE
Composer
Mark Adamo’s
Little
Women
opera
premieres
in Houston.1880
STOCKING STUFFER
Little Women is
combined into one
volume when Alcott’s
publisher, Roberts
Brothers, decides to
cash in on the holiday
season and release a
gilded-edge edition
suitable for gifting.1871
THE FRANCHISE
What’s next? How about a sequel:
Little Men. After her sister
Anna’s husband dies suddenly,
Alcott, who never married herself,
helps provide for the fatherless
family, buying them Thoreau’s
house, where he wrote much
of Walden. That house sold in
October 2019 for $2.46 million.1933
“CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS!”
RKO releases George
Cukor’s celebrated
film starring Katharine
Hepburn as a galumphing
tomboy version of
Jo. It’s a hit and wins
the Best Adapted
Screenplay Oscar.
2005
FAN-FICTION
GeraldineBrooks
publishes March,
about Mr. March’s
trials returning
north at theend
of the CivilWar.2017
ANTACIDS,SHEWROTE
TheBBCdebutsa new
TVversion—theBeeb’s
fourth—withAngela
LansburyasaBritish-
inflectedAunt
Marchwho
complainsabout
indigestion.2018
150 YEARS
Thebookis reconsidered
ontheoccasionofits
150thanniversary. Anne
Boyd Rioux’sMeg,Jo, Beth,
Amy:TheStoryofLittle
WomenandWhyIt Still
Matterskicksoffabarrage
ofessaysonitsenduring
appealdespiteslipping
offschoolreadinglists.2019
IT’LLSTILL
MAKEYOUCRY
GretaGerwig
releasesherown
versionoftheclassic,
whichgrapples
with“allofthese
inappropriate
emotionsfor
youngwomen
tohave.”1933
MERCH
Madame Alexander
begins producing
a line of Little
Women dolls. It
still does: Jo will run
you about $130 at
Neiman Marcus.1949
NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE
Film studios have another go, this
time with June Allyson as Jo, Elizabeth
Taylor as Amy, Margaret O’Brien as
Beth, and relative newcomer Janet
Leigh as Meg. O’Brien carries a basket
around for much of the film—the
same basket Judy Garland toted as
Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. The film
grosses nearly $3.5 million in the U.S.