Museum Shop: Non-fiction Books

Learn more about the Alcotts and their world, and support Orchard House with your order. Every book includes an original Orchard House bookplate and bookmark.

Books for Children about Louisa May Alcott

Invincible Louisa
by Cornelia Meigs
Paperback, 210 pages. $7.99
This Newbery Award-winning biography is excellent for young adults and adolescents.

Cobblestone
Booklet form, $6.25
Cobblestone is a history magazine for young people that focuses issues on specific topics in American history. We have available two back issues that focused on the Alcott family.

Books for Children about 19th-Century America

Perspectives on History Series
Collections of easily understandable primary source documents provide contemporary insights into various issues of the 19th century. $7.95 each.

The Underground Railroad: Life on the Road to Freedom
edited by Pat Perrin

The New England Transcendentalists: Life of the Mind and of the Spirit
edited by Ellen Hansen

Women in the Civil War: Warriors Patriots, Nurses, and Spies
edited by Phyllis Raybin Emert

Forward into Light: The Struggle for Woman's Suffrage
edited by Madeleine Meyers

Publications from Orchard House

The Concord School of Philosophy. Booklet, $3.95
An overview of the eminent men and women involved in the Concord School of Philosophy.

The Poetry of Louisa May Alcott Booklet: $ 6.99
A collection of delightful poems, edited by our own Maria Powers and published by Orchard House. Many of these literary gems have never before been available.

Books for Adults by Louisa May Alcott

The Journals of Louisa May Alcott
edited by Joel Myerson and Daniel Shealy. Associate Editor, Madeleine Stern. Introduction by Madeleine Stern. 356 pages. $26.95
"It's a credit to Louisa May Alcott's timeless storytelling abilities that her thoughts on women's suffrage, slavery, and even berry picking are nevertheless illuminating." - The New York Times Book Review
Selected entries from Louisa's extensive journals provide a fascinating in-depth look at the thoughts of a remarkable woman.

The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott Paperback: $26.95
Edited by Joel Myerson, Daniel Shealy and Madeleine Stern
Private and public correspondence of Louisa with in-depth annotations.

L.M. Alcott: Signature of Reform
edited and with an introduction by Madeleine Stern
Paperback. $18.95
Inspired by the Orchard House Summer Conversational Series of 2000 and 2001, this is a collection of reform-minded writing that influenced 19th century intellectuals, placed alongside Louisa's own writings on reform.

Books for Adults about Louisa May Alcott and her Family

Louisa May Alcott: A Biography

by Madeleine Stern. 422 pages. $29.95

Recommended and well-read by Orchard House staff, this is a definitive biography of the author of Little Woman.

Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
By John Matteson.
528 pages, hardbound, $29.95

Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for biography!

“John Matteson's engrossing biography of the Alcotts achieves a rare fusion of intellectual precision and emotional empathy. Eden's Outcasts combines the eye of a philosopher with the heart of a novelist. A deftly rendered and highly recommended portrait of an incomparable father and daughter.”

-- Madeleine B. Stern

Little Women Abroad:
The Alcott Sisters' Letters from Europe, 1870-1871
Edited by Prof. Daniel Shealy, UNC-Charlotte

$34.95 Hardcover 376 pages 79 illustrations

A trove of words and pictures offers new insights into a celebrated American family! In 1870, Louisa May Alcott and her youngest sister May began a fourteen-month tour of Europe. Louisa had already made her mark as a writer with Little Women, Good Wives, and Old-Fashioned Girl (and would write Little Men during this trip), while May was on the verge of a respected art career. Little Women Abroad ... gathers a generous selection of May's drawings along with all of the known letters written by the two Alcott sisters during their trip. Most of the drawings included were previously unpublished, and of the seventy-one letters, more than three-quarters appear in their entirety for the first time.

Prof. Shealy's supporting materials add detail and context to the people, places, and events referenced in the letters and illustrations. This work tells a vibrant story of two important American artists -- one literary, the other visual -- at the crossroads of American and European history and culture. A must-read for any fan of the Alcott family!

Louisa May Alcott: From Blood and Thunder to Hearth and Home
by Madeleine Stern. 274 pages. $20.00

Collected essays by a noted Alcott scholar tracing the evolution of Louisa May Alcott's literary career.

Alcott: In Her Own Time
Edited by University of North Carolina Professor Daniel Shealy.
A neat compendium of Louisa May Alcott’s life as told through a series of recollections, interviews, and memoirs by family, friends, and associates.

Here are stories from the people who knew her, with several that focus on Louisa’s teen years, providing intimate glimpses into the life of the Alcotts that lead readers to one conclusion: the family was happy, fun, and entertaining -- very much like the fictional Marches! $24.95

Record of a School
By Elizabeth Palmer Peabody.
Introduction by Peabody biographer Megan Marshall.
Facsimile transcription of the detailed 1835 account of proceedings at Bronson Alcott’s Temple School in Boston. Includes actual dialogue between teacher and pupils, as well as illustrations of the unique classroom and daily schedule. This insight on teaching still holds relevance for any educator today.

226 pages, paperback. $15.95

Books for Adults about Concord

A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England
By R. Todd Felton
180 pages; 93 color images, 56 B & W images, 7 maps; $19.95
Charts the development of a movement that revolutionized American ideas about the artistic, spiritual, and natural worlds. At the same time, it creates a vivid sense of New England in the 19th century, from its idyllic countryside and sleepy towns to its bustling ports and burgeoning cities. The book is divided geographically into chapters, each focusing on a town or village famous for its relationship to one or more of the Transcendentalists -- including, of course, Concord and the Alcotts.

Concord: Its Poets and Its Places
Photographs by Rodger and Mary Nordblum $19.95
With selected writings by Emerson, Alcott, Hawthorne, and Thoreau.
The exceptional background and beauty of Concord is revealed through these photographs of historic sites and natural settings.

Revolutionary Boston, Lexington, and Concord
by Joseph L. Andrews, Jr., and Contributors. 148 pages. $14.95
A visitor's guide to sites of importance in the Revolutionary War period.