Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American novelist who grew up in poverty among the New England transcendentalists and worked as a teacher, seamstress and Civil War nurse to support her family. She wrote anonymous sensation stories for money before a publisher asked her for a book for girls; Little Women (1868) was an immediate success and made her financially independent. She was an active abolitionist and campaigner for women's suffrage.