Louisa May Alcott | Autograph letter signed, discussing her sisters

Alcott, Louisa May

Autograph letter signed (“L. M. Alcott) to Miss Eva Bain, April 20th [1883], discussing her sisters and their children using the names given to them in her novels

4 pages on 1 sheet on Ward and Day stationery (230 x 175 mm); very minor toning with clean split at one fold, with original addressed envelope.

Alcott replies to the daughter of a soldier she treated during the Civil War, sharing family details and her sadness at aging… “I shall never see the Rocky Mountains...”

Alcott begins with sympathy and a recollection of her time as a nurse, “I was much pleased to hear from Robert Bain’s daughter, though sorry to hear of his death. I remember him very well as a cheerful, brave young man fellow who bore much pain like a man and made sunshine in my ward… he was one of ‘my boys’ and ‘Baby B’ was a favorite.”

Eva Bain must have invited Alcott to visit her in Colorado and the author declines, lamenting that she is “getting to be an old woman” but gives her recipient perhaps a more tantalizing possibility that “Meg’s boy Demi might go that way and if he does he will call and tell you how much of ‘Little Women’ is true.”

“Meg” was of course the name Alcott gave the character in Little Women based on her eldest sister, Anna Bronson Alcott. She continues with rather sadder news about “Amy” from the novel—their youngest sister Abigail May Alcott. “I have Amy’s little girl for mine now since Abby died in Paris four ago after marrying a Swiss gentleman.” Abby’s daughter, Louisa May (“Lulu”) was born in 1879, with Abby dying seven weeks later, likely due to complications from the birth. Louisa May Alcott cared for her namesake niece until her own death in 1888.

Alcott closes this short but remarkably poignant letter by suggesting that the cactus Eva had offered to send would not survive the difference in climate.