Literary Sites - Louisa May Alcott - Boston, MA

Louisa May Alcott 

Boston, MA

N 42° 21.583 W 071° 03.990

Short Description:

The childhood home of the novelist Louisa May Alcott is at 20 Pinckney Street on Beacon Hill in Boston.

Long Description:

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832. As a child she lived at 20 Pinckney Street with her parents Abigail May Alcott and Amos Bronson Alcott along with her three sisters: Anna Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Abigail May Alcott. Her family was part of the Boston literary scene with such friends as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.

She began writing at a young age and published her first story, at age 20, “The Rival Painters: a Tale of Rome”, in 1852, and her first book, Flower Fables in 1854. As an adult, in 1868, she wrote her most famous work "Little Women", a story about her childhood experiences with her three sisters.

A plaque in front of the house identifies the building as Louisa May Alcott's childhood home. it is inscribed:

20 Pinckney Street

As little girl Louisa May Alcott lived in rented
rooms at 20 Pinckney Street. The Alcott home
was part of the Boston literary scene during
the decades before the Civil War. Louisa's 
father Bronson Alcott, was a innovative 
educator whose friends included Ralph Waldo
Emerson, William Ellery Channing and
William Lloyd Garrison

In the 1880's he reputation and fortune secure,
Miss Alcott returned to Beacon Hill. She lived
at 10 Louisburg Square until her death.

Beacon Hill

10 Louisburg Square