Unpublished Louisa May Alcott Letters and Manuscript Acquired by Concord Free Public Library

An archive of Louisa May Alcott material acquired by the Concord Free Public Library includes letters from the author to publisher Thomas Niles about the illustrations in the first edition of Little Women.

Also included in the paper is the original manuscript for Alcott's gothic thriller A Long Fatal Love Chase which was not published until 1995 when it became a New York Times bestseller, and an unpublished letter from 1841 by her father Bronson in which he writes “Eden is being planted in New England as fabled Paradise of yore”, a reference to the Utopian community of Fruitlands which is also discussed in accompanying letters by Mrs. Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The collection is part of ongoing work by long-time Alcott enthusiast, collector Dr Kent Bicknell to assemble key items relating to the author and her family, and through the Alcott collection of Colorado entrepreneur Tim Mather who donated the archive to the library.

"Collecting is not just about finding the rare item but also about whether the material speaks to and with the other collections in your holdings and tells a compelling story," said Anke Voss, curator of the library's Special Collections. "I believe our recent Alcott acquisitions will provide a magnificent new window into the lives of the Alcotts."

The Concord Free Public Library will host Kent Bicknell and Alcott scholar Daniel Shealy for a program and exhibition of the newly acquired Alcott material on March 28.