Painting a Way Home: Talk at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House

I played Little Women, dressing up in my grandmother’s old clothes, before I read the novel from the bookshelf my sister and I shared. We watched the Katherine Hepburn movie on TV, and I loved the drama of deep hope found in the ordinary lives of girls. I remember standing outside of Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House with my family and cousins when I was about ten, and quietly freaking out at being so close to the place where one of my favorite stories began. I don’t remember going inside. Maybe we got there too late, or maybe our parents decided not to spend the money on a tour. If I’d seen Louisa’s half-moon-shaped desk where she wrote Little Women I might have fainted. Louisa May Alcott made me feel that one day I could become a writer, too.

It’s beyond thrilling – but I won’t faint! — that next Wednesday I’ll be speaking not in Orchard House, but just next door, at the Summer Conversational Series. I’ll always adore Louisa, but as many of you know, I’ve spent much of the past years obsessed with her artistic sister, May, the subject of my forthcoming novel, Little Woman in Blue. My talk is “May Alcott: Painting a Way Home.” I’ll discuss the spirit of place in nineteenth century Concord, and May’s connections to rivers, ponds, houses, and watercolors. Check out registration information at the link, and come if you can!

And thanks to my daughter, Emily, for taking this picture of me at Orchard House just past lilac season.