An unvarnished examination of Louisa May Alcott’s life draws heavily on her personal correspondence and journals, providing a nuanced sense of the Alcott family dynamics and challenges of her childhood, and the resulting responsibility she felt as an adult to provide for her relatives. Louisa and her mother Abby both struggled with the heavy load of caring for the rest of the family, at times coping with depression and hopelessness, while Bronson routinely focused on his intellectual and philosophical goals, seemingly oblivious to the harsh realities of their existence. Speculation about Louisa’s adult romantic life is unverified but inferred from references in her diaries. The author’s protracted failing health, likely a result of mercury given as treatment for typhoid pneumonia contracted during her work as a Civil War nurse, is chronicled even as her determination to continue to write and publish until near the end of her life remained steadfast. (Age 12 and older)