Northern New Jersey Chapter
Monthly Program
Victorian Society in America
Northern New Jersey Chapter
VSA-NNJ meets monthly from September to June for lectures and events
related to 19th Century history, usually on the third Monday of the month.
The Life and Times of
Louisa May Alcott
presented by Ava Caridad
Monday, April 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Montclair Women's Club,
82 Union Street, Montclair NJ
This venue is handicap accessible. Parking is available behind the building
and on the street. Light refreshments, coffee and tea will be served.
The program is free for members, and $10 for guests.
Louisa May Alcott was a 19th Century American writer, feminist and abolitionist whose life ran parallel to Jo March, the heroine from her most famous novel—“Little Women.” However, their stories are far from identical. Born in 1832, Alcott was the daughter of transcendentalist parents who worked in education and social work. Similar to Jo, she grew up the second oldest child with three sisters in Concord, MA. The Alcotts befriended many intellectuals of their day, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and were far more impoverished than the fictional March family as Alcott's father was an idealistic dreamer who was often in debt.
Join us as we learn more about this fascinating author, Civil War nurse, governess, teacher, seamstress, maid and playwright, her family, her career and her thoughts about “books for girls.”
Ava Caridad holds a Masters Degree in 19th Century American Literature from Rutgers University. She is the Editor of The Bloomfield Historian: Official Newsletter of The Historical Society of Bloomfield (NJ) and a contributing book reviewer for The Edgar Allan Poe Review from Penn State University Press.
For more information, please contact
973-886-9956
Visit us online at www.vsa-nnj.com
