Celebrity Graveland

November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888

Though she wrote a number of letters, articles and novels (sometimes under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard) prior, Concord, MA resident Louisa May Alcott found her greatest literary success with 1868’s semi-autobiographical Little Women. Alcott was one of four daughters of transcendental parents and grew up with family friends such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.  The characters and incidents in Little Women are based on Alcott’s early life and relationship with her sisters. She penned a couple of follow-ups to Women and ultimately published dozens of works in her lifetime. During the Civil War, she also served as a nurse where she may or may not have contracted typhoid fever. This may or may not have lead to her eventual death. Or it could have been mercury poisoning. Or lupus. 19th century tabloids were terrible at getting the facts straight. Either way, Louisa passed away at the age of 55 after suffering a stroke in Boston.

Burial

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery – Concord, MA

Specific Location

Authors Ridge; There are signs that lead to the famed hill where a number of notable American writers are buried, look for them and follow them to the northeastern part of the cemetery, the Alcott family is buried on the south side of Hillside Ave.

This entry was posted on October 7, 2013 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (MA) with tags Authors Ridge, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (MA), Transcendentalists, Writers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.