May Alcott, Louisa: - Louisa May Alcott, an American novelist and poet, was born in 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Alcott was the daughter of the famous visionary Bronson Alcott and was friend of Emerson and Thoreau. Her education was under the direction of her father, for a time at his old Temple School in Boston and, later, at home. She turned to writing in order to increase the family income and had many short stories printed in magazines and newspapers. In addition to writing, she worked as a teacher, governess, and Civil War nurse, as well as being an advocate of abolition, women's rights, and prohibition. After her experiences she wrote Hospital Sketches (1864) which won wide praise, followed by an adult novel, Moods. She is best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women is generally based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters. Alcott was writing of her own incense experiences with fame. She expired in 1888 and is buried in Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Concord Massachusetts.