few poems, 'Thoreau's Flute,' appeared in that
magazine in September, 1863. After six weeks' experience in the winter
of 1862-63 as a hospital nurse in Washington, she wrote for the
Commonwealth, a Boston weekly paper, a series of letters which soon
appeared in book form as 'Hospital Sketches,' Miss Alcott says of them,
"The 'Sketches' never made much money, but showed me 'my style.'" In
1864 she published a novel, 'Moods'; and in 1866, after a year abroad as
companion to an invalid, she became editor of Merry's Museum, a magazine
for children.

Her 'Little Women,' founded on her own family life, was written in
1867-68, in answer to a request from the publishing house of Roberts
Brothers for a story for girls, and its success was so great that she
soon finished a second part. The two volumes were translated into
French, German, and Dutch, and became favorite books in England. While
editing Merry's Museum, she had written the first part of 'The
Old-Fashioned Girl' as a serial for the magazine. After the success of
'Little Women,' she carried the 'Old-Fashioned Girl' and her friends
forward several years, and ended the story with two happy marriages. In
1870 she went abroad a second time, and from her return the next year
until her death in Boston from overwork on March 6th, 1888, the day of
her father's funeral, she published twenty volumes, including two
novels: one anonymous, 'A Modern Mephistopheles,' in the 'No Name'
series; the other, 'Work,' largely a record of her own experience. She
rewrote 'Moods,' and changed the sad ending of the first version to a
more cheerful one; followed the fortunes of her 'Little Women' and their
children in 'Little Men' and 'Jo's Boys,' and published ten volumes of
short stories, many of them reprinted pieces. She wrote also 'Eight
Cousins,' its sequel 'Rose in Bloom,' 'Under the Lilacs,' and 'Jack
and Jill,'

The charm of her books lies in their freshness, naturalness, and
sympathy with the feelings and pursuits of boys and girls. She says of
herself, "I was born with a boy's spirit under my bib and tucker," and
she never lost it. Her style is often careless, never elegant, for she
wrote hurriedly, and never revised or even read over her manuscript; yet
her books are full of humor and pathos, and preach the gospel of work
and simple, wholesome living. She has been a help and inspiration to
many young girls, who have learned from her Jo in 'Little Women,' or
Polly in the 'Old-Fashion