Louisa May Was Not the Only Talented Sister! Read The Other Alcott
- Melissa Gouty
- Jun 28
- 8 min read
by Elise Hooper
You've probably heard of Louisa May Alcott. But have you heard of May Alcott Nieriker, the subject of Elise Hooper's novel, The Other Alcott?
Remember Little Women?
Most girls who love books read Little Women at some point in their young lives, and that's a lot of girls absorbing the same story over the last 158 years! Written by Louisa May Alcott and published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, Little Women was an immediate best seller. Since that time, the beloved novel has never been out of print. It's been translated into more than fifty languages and sold more than ten million copies worldwide. This story is so popular that it's been made into numerous films and stage adaptations since it was written.
Even before Little Women, Louisa May Alcott was cementing her place in American Literature. Alcott served as a Union nurse during the Civil War, but her service was cut short by typhoid fever, an illness, treated at the time with mercury, which weakened her body and probably shortened her life. Louisa's brief experiences as a nurse, (about six weeks before she became too ill to continue), provided the foundation for Hospital Sketches. The success of Hospital Sketches brought Louisa May Alcott to the attention of influential editors and publishers, especially Thomas Niles of Roberts Brothers. Five years later, Niles encouraged her to write a "girls' story"—a suggestion that led to Little Women.
To write Little Women, Alcott took events from her childhood and used them to inspire a fictional twist on her real life. In reality, there were four Alcott daughters: Anna, Louisa, Lizzie, and Abigail May, who went by "May." In the novel, Louisa changed them to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. (I find it interesting that the name May simply shifted two letters and became "Amy.") Fact and fiction were blurred together. Many details were the same, including the death of the sister, Lizzie, in real life, "Beth" in the novel. Both the real person and the fictional character caught scarlet fever while helping a poor family, and complications of the illness caused weakness and physical decline to death. Interestingly, Louisa based Meg partly on her oldest sister, Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. In the book, Meg marries John Brooke, who married, had three children, and became a devoted wife and mother. In real life, Anna's husband, John Pratt, died at the age of thirty-seven, after less than ten years of marriage to Anna. After John's death, Anna and her two young songmoved back into the family home with her parents. Bronson Alcott even added on a small addition for them. The fictional Meg had a far happier life than her human counterpart, Anna, did.
If you remember Little Women, you probably remember Amy, the youngest fictional sister. She was interested in art, as well as their next door neighbor, Laurie, a source of tension in the book since Jo and Laurie were the best of friends. The tension from the book might have resulted from real-life sensibilities. Some accounts suggest that Louisa found her younger sister to be vain and spoiled. But she did agree to let May do the illustrations for Little Women. People loved the book, but May's illustrations were trashed by critics, damaging May's self-esteem and casting doubt on her dreams of becoming a reputable artist.
Real-life similarities in The Other Alcott:
The real-life Ma, like her fictional counterpoint, Amy, wanted to be an artist. The real-life Louisa, like her fictional counterpoint, Jo, wanted to be a writer. Louisa's early success made her double down and work even harder. Publishers wanted MORE of her work. She often worked fifteen hours a day in her little room, churning out dozens of sensational stories—thrillers, melodramas, romances, Gothic tales, revenge plots, and stories of disguise and intrigue. They appeared in popular magazines and story papers that catered to mass audiences.
Because Louisa rebelled against having to marry women off (as she was asked to do in Little Men, the sequel to Little Women because so many readers wanted it,) and because she wanted to write something other than the accepted stereotype of women, she frequently wrote under the name of A. M. Barnard so that she could craft stories of actresses, runaway lovers, and scheming, manipulative women without damaging her or her family's reputation.
Louisa May Alcott became wealthy
The gist is that, because of Louisa May Alcott's hard work and drive to succeed, her willingness to focus solely on her career, and the unbelievable success of Little Women, she became a millionaire.
By the time she died in 1888, Alcott had earned more than $200,000 in royalties from Little Women, its sequels, and her other books. Scholars and literary organizations generally estimate that this is equivalent to approximately $6–$7 million today, depending on the inflation measure used.
Her wealth enabled her to take care of the Alcott family, which had always been on a precarious financial footing because her dad, Bronson Alcott, was a great thinker and educator but not a great money maker. (He believed that people should not be paid for work. Instead, he relied on the generosity of friends and family members and moved the family to Concord to be near Ralph Waldo Emerson, who supported the Alcotts not just emotionally, but financially with rent and property costs, and frequently gave them cash.)
That influx of ready money from Louisa's writing allowed Louisa to support her baby sister, May, in her artistic pursuits, providing her with classes, lodging, and eventually travel and study in Europe to learn art from the great teachers of Europe.
The Other Alcott, indeed
Until I read Elise Hooper's novel, The Other Alcott, I had no knowledge of the prowess of the youngest Alcott daughter in the art world, and later in the publishing world. What a story!
The Other Alcott traces much of the real life of the Alcott daughters, primarily Louisa and May. It's a story of struggle and familial love, as well an in-depth look at what it took for women to break into the male-dominated art world of the mid-19th century.
What I remember of reading Little Women when I was young was that Jo March's sister, Amy, was a young girl "playing" with art, toying with the idea, dabbling around with sketches and paintings. What I learned from The Other Alcott was the complete opposite. The real May Alcott was an intense and dedicated student with talent, focused on succeeding in the male-dominated art world. The Other Alcott taught me that May Alcott was the only American woman whose painting was chosen to be exhibited at the 1877 Paris Art Salon, an honor that her friend Mary Cassatt did not earn!
Here's the painting that was shown at the Salon, not placed in some far corner, or on a top or bottom level. May's painting was exhibited directly at eye level, an honor on its own.
The Paris Art Salon
So what's the big deal about the Paris art salon, you may be asking?
To put this in perspective, the Paris Salon wasn't just another art show. It was the art show of the nineteenth century—the place where careers were made, reputations established, and futures changed. Getting a painting into the Salon was like having an unknown artist's first painting hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or a debut author being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. For artists, acceptance into the Salon meant one thing: You had arrived.
The catch? Getting in was incredibly difficult. The Salon was juried, and artists from around the world submitted their work to a panel of established painters who decided what would be exhibited. Rejection was common, even for artists we now consider masters. Several of the most revered Impressionists we know of now, including Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Cezanne, had works rejected from the Paris Salon. Meanwhile, thousands of artists competed for limited wall space and visibility. In other words, acceptance wasn't a participation trophy. It was a genuine mark of artistic distinction.
That's what makes the fact that May Alcott, a single American woman studying abroad, not only gained acceptance to the Salon in 1877 but was exhibited for a second time in 1879, all the more remarkable.
Many art scholars believe that May's portrait, La Negresse, accepted into the 1879 Paris Salon, was her masterpiece, a work made possible by her family's abolitionist stance and belief that all people, regardless of color or status, had dignity.
A picture is worth a thousand words
Oh, my goodness. It's one thing to read about May's struggle to be an artist. It's another thing to see May Alcott Nieriker's art in photos and on the computer screen. It's another thing altogether to see May's beautiful work in person!
I had the great joy of traveling with two of my friends on a Literary Travel Adventure where we traced the dwelling places of my favorite American authors through much of Massachusetts and Connecticut, including a tour of The Orchard House, the Alcotts' famly home in Concord.
In the home, May's artwork was exhibited throughout. Every wall had pictures that May had painted. Let me tell you, they were fabulous. Some were detailed landscapes. Some portraits. Some studies of architecture. In her bedroom, rough sketches were drawn directly on the windowsills and walls, May's youthful practice of improving her skills. Seeing the bounty - and the progression - of her work, I realized that May was every bit as talented and as driven in achieving her dream of being an artist as Louisa was in achieving her dream of being a writer. May was also just as principled and steadfast as Louisa in believing that women should be able to follow their dreams, just as men do. May even wrote a book to help other female artists trying to get ahead in a world that did not provide the same advantages to women. It was titled, "Studying Art Abroad, and How to Do It Cheaply."
May Alcott was NOT a dabbler in art, but an extremely talented artist devoted to her craft, paving a way forward for the women who came after her.
One of May's paintings that graced the walls of The Orchard House tickled my fancy. I don't know why, never having had an owl obsession or a love of somber colors. Yet, somehow, this one intrigued me: (Look at the detail in the pages of the manuscript, the way the light hits the side of the owl, and at how real the whale figurine looks!)
While May was in Europe, she met a Swiss violinist, Ernest Nieriker. He was sixteen years younger than she was, but that didn't stop them from loving each other and marrying, defying societal conventions. There is more to May's story, and her sister, Louisa May Alcott, is a big part of that story, but you'll need to read The Other Alcott to find out what happens to May in the end. Believe me. You will want to know - even if it makes you cry!
If you love art...
If you appreciate strong women...
If you like knowing the backstory to the lives of important people...
If you enjoy history...
A Visit to the Orchard House, Home of the Alcott Family
On my recent Literary Travel Adventure trip with my friends, we had a fantastic tour at The Orchard House! Wow. Of course, like many writers, artists, dreamers, and ambitious women before me, I knocked on the door, hoping to meet inspiration face to face!
If you love art...
If you appreciate strong women...
If you like knowing the backstory of the lives of important people...
If you enjoy history...
Read The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper.
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Never read Little Women? Or read it so long ago you don't remember it well?
Buy Little Women from Amazon (online retailer)
Buy Little Women from Bookshop.org (supports independent bookstores)
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