Alcott (Louisa May) is born in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

The daughter of Bronson and Abigail (May) Alcott , Louisa May Alcott lives variously in “Concord and Boston for most of her life. Alcott initially attempts to write adult fiction, and publishes her first story in 1860.* But despite decrying the genre as “moral pap for the young,” goes on to become one of the most popular American authors of juvenile literature in American history. She serves as a nurse in the Civil War beginning in 1862.* Alcott never marries, and once writes, “I’d rather be a spinster and paddle my own canoe.” In later years, she lives periodically at the Hotel Bellevue and rents a home at 10 Louisburg Square. She dies in a nursing home at 10 Dunreath Place on March 6, 1888, the same day as her father’s funeral. Alcott is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.