York in American History: Famed author Louisa May Alcott visits York

"May & I by turns to York, Maine," Louisa May Alcott, best known as the author of the American classic “Little Women” wrote in 1876, "Nice old place."  The book, which portrays the lives of the four Alcott girls in fictional guises, had been first published only six years earlier, and had been a success from the outset. The year of her visit to this town, was also the year that “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was published, by yet another of York's future visitors, Mark Twain.

"Mr. Niles wants a girl story, and I begin ‘Little Women,’” Louisa recounted how the book originated in the spring of 1868. "Never liked girls or knew many except my sisters..."

She worked on the project with great intensity, and within weeks, had completed twelve chapters for review. Niles' reaction was not encouraging, "he thought it dull, and so do I” she admitted, but decided to persevere with the effort regardless. "Lively, simple books are very much needed for girls, and perhaps I can supply the need."

Consider the pace at which she wrote her novel into the summer of 1868, so that by mid-July, the first part was done. "Have finished ‘Little Women,’ and sent it off, - 402 pages. May is designing some pictures for it. Hope it will go... Very tired, head full of pain from overwork."

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In late August, she sounded positive. "It reads better than I expected. Not a bit sensational, but simple and true, for we really lived most of it, and if it succeeds that will be the reason of it..."

Young girls, the intended audience, had been given the manuscript to read, and said it was "splendid!" Thus, Louisa May Alcott, who favored thrillers with sophisticated themes, and was in many respects ahead of her time, had discovered how instead to become popular and prosperous. Her life changed, as decades of frustrating struggle came to an end, and despite frequent episodes of ill health, she could finally benefit from her fame on both sides of the Atlantic.

Already by late October, she could observe how well the book was to be received by the public. "An order from London for an edition came in. First edition gone and more called for. Expects to sell three or four thousand before the New Year. Mr. Niles wants a second volume for spring..." As revealed by her comment, “Little Women” was actually composed in two separate volumes, with the first set during the Civil War, and the second, three years later, after the war had ended, and the four girls were confronting such experiences as marriage, childbirth, and death.

As November 1868 opened, Louisa was hard at work on the second volume. "I can do a chapter a day, and in a month, I mean to be done. A little success is so inspiring," she acknowledged, "that I now find my ‘Marches’ sober, nice people, and as I can launch into the future, my fancy has more play."  She had reached the thirteenth chapter by the middle of the month. "I am so full of my work, I can't stop to eat or sleep, or for anything but a daily run."

Whenever she entered such an episode of seemingly full involvement, she described it as being in a "vortex."

The second volume was sent to the publisher early in 1869. "Hope it will do as well as the first," she confided to her journal, "which is selling finely, and receives good notices."  When spring arrived, her reputation was fully established. "People begin to come and stare at the Alcott’s. Reporters haunt the place to look at the authoress."   In the years that followed she would write sequels to the novel that were equally popular and had developed a distinctive style.

The four March sisters who were placed as the central characters of “Little Women,” were drawn from the lives and personalities of the four Alcott sisters. Louisa represented herself as Jo, constantly challenged by her angry outbursts that often got her into trouble. May, the artist, who also visited York in 1876, was Amy in the novel. Elizabeth, who eventually succumbed to the debilitating effects of scarlet fever, was Beth, and the oldest, Anna, was Meg.

In Chapter 15 of the first volume of the novel, entitled "A Telegram," the sisters learn that their father, a regimental chaplain, is hospitalized and seriously ill, in Washington D.C.  And so very quickly, their mother, who is known as Marmee, in the company of Mr. John Brooke, a family friend, departed for the south by train. In actuality, it was Louisa herself, in the winter of 1863, who as a nurse at an army hospital, contracted typhoid, and had to be retrieved by her father as she lay bedridden and delirious with fever.

Although after a few months she recovered, her health was never the same, and she suffered from chronic pain and fatigue. Was it the mediation that was to blame, the calomel that was the source of mercury poisoning? Many of her biographers cite this as the cause, but others disagree. Why any of this is mentioned, is because it may have been a factor in her choice of York for a summer visit, not only in 1876, but also in 1880. She was desperate for relief from her symptoms and went to great lengths in search of that relief.

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"To York with boys," she was referring to her nephews, the sons of her sister Anna who had married John Pratt. "Rest & enjoy the fine air..."  As a coastal resort, York was widely recognized by the late nineteenth century for the health advantages of the location. By this time, Louisa's sister May was dead. She had given birth to a daughter in 1879, having recently married in Europe. That girl, who was named Lulu, arrived on a ship into Boston in September 1880 to be taken into the care of her famous aunt.

In the “Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott,” is a letter that was written from this town on July 20, 1880. The subject, Frank Merrill's illustrations for an upcoming Christmas holiday printing of “Little Women.” "The drawings are all capital, and we had great fun over them down here this rainy day... Mr. Merrill certainly deserves a good penny for his work."

And so, among the distinguished visitors to York, a very long list indeed, can be added yet another. The woman who was a friend to Thoreau and Emerson, who knew intimately the Concord of the Transcendentalists, who authored a book that was to endure from one century to the next, and even to the next, was here, and yes, she found this town a "Nice old place."

James Kences is the town historian for the town of York. 

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: York in American History: Louisa May Alcott visits York