ALCOTT 



171 



ALDEN 



The recent findings of Pearson and Goddard, 

 the latter in tracing especially the causes of 

 idiocy and feeble-mindedness, would seem to 

 suggest that Demme's alcoholic families con- 

 tained some defective stock, the alcoholism 

 being a result rather than the cause of at 

 least some of the defective offspring. C.F.H. 



ALCOTT, awl'kut, LOUISA MAY (1832-1888), 

 an American storywriter, the author of prob- 

 ably the best-loved book in literature for young 

 girls, entitled Little Women. She was born in 

 Germantown, Pa., the daughter of Amos Bron- 

 son Alcott. Most of her life was passed in 

 Concord, Mass., 

 whither the fam- 

 ily removed in 

 1840, and Little 

 Women is large- 

 ly a record of 

 the experiences 

 of herself and 

 IHT three sisters 

 in the Orchard 

 House, their 

 Concord home. 

 This house has 

 been bought by 

 the Alcott Me- 

 morial Associa- 

 tion as a perma- 

 nent memorial 

 of the author. 



Miss Alcott, like "Jo" in Little Women, be- 

 gan to write short stories for publication at 

 the age of sixteen. She taught school for ten 

 years, and had her first book, Flower Fables, 

 published in 1856. In 1863 she wrote Hos- 



LOUISA MAY ALCOTT 

 She possessed the secret of 

 laughter as well as of tears. 

 Her charm for girlhood is 

 l-ss in the story that she 

 wrote than In the tenderness 

 with which she wrote it. 



Tin: ALCOTT HOME, "ORCHARD HOUSE" 



an account of her life as a 



nurse in a Washington military hospital, but 



she found h.- r real fi< Id in 1868, when Little 



" appeared. This -was the first of a ae- 



ries of books for boys and girls, all of which 

 have been enthusiastically received by young 

 American readers. Little Men and Jo's Boys 

 continue the fortunes of the family described 

 in Little Women. In Old Fashioned Girl and 

 Eight Cousins the author makes known some 

 of her views on the bringing up of girls. All 

 of these children's stories show the influence 

 of her father, who was her chief teacher. They 

 are written in a humorous, entertaining stylr. 

 and show how interesting the commonplace 

 scenes of every-day life can be made. Others 

 of the series are Rose in Bloom, Under th< 

 Lilacs and Jack and Jill. 



Amos Bronson Alcott, her father, was also a 

 writer of note and a leader in the Transcen- 

 dental school of philosophy, and in the com- 

 munity known as Brook Farm. His best- 

 known work is possibly Concord Days, whose 

 theme centers about Transcendentalism. See 

 BROOK FARM; TRANSCENDENTALISM. 



ALDEN, awl' den, ISABELLA MCDONALD 

 1841- ), an American author whose books 

 for girls, written under the pen name of PANSY, 

 have been among the most popular of Ameri- 

 can productions. She was born in Rochester, 

 N. Y., was editor of several religious papers, 

 including the Christian Endeavor World, and 

 wrote some serious books for adults, among 

 which is a life of Christ. Her Pansy books 

 have an exceedingly high moral tone. 



ALDEN, awl' <!< n. JOHN (1599-1687). In the 

 records of the old colony of Plymouth, planted 

 on the rock-bound coast of New England in 

 the year 1620, there is mention of one John 

 Alden who was hired "for a cooper at 

 Southampton, where the ship (Mayflower) was 

 victualled." The narrative goes on to say "Be- 

 ing a hopeful young man, he was much de- 

 sired, but left to his own liking to go or stay 

 when he came here, but he stayed and mar- 

 ried here." One would scarce know from these 

 brief lines that a romantic interest attaches 

 t the name of John Alden, but tradition has 

 preserved his story for us, and it has been im- 

 mortalized by Longfellow, though its hero rests 

 in an unmarked and unknown grave. 



In the division of the land into homesteads, 

 John Alden was assigned to the house of the 

 famous Captain Miles Standish (which see), 

 and the two became close friends. The Cap- 

 tain's wife died during the first winter, and 

 the lonely husband, seeking someone to fill 

 IK r place, turned his thoughts to Priscilla Mul- 

 lins, "loveliest maiden of Plymouth." Though 

 not afraid of shot from the mouth of a cannon, 



