Posted on 01/21/2024 5:46:29 PM PST by Red Badger
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — The author of “Little Women” may have been even more productive and sensational than previously thought.
Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral teaching associate at Northeastern University, believes he found about 20 stories and poems written by Louisa May Alcott under her own name as well as pseudonyms for local newspapers in Massachusetts in the late 1850s and early 1860s.
One of the pseudonyms is believed to be E. H. Gould, including a story about her house in Concord, Massachusetts, and a ghost story along the lines of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol.” He also found four poems written by Flora Fairfield, a known pseudonym of Alcott’s. One of the stories written under her own name was about a young painter.
“It’s saying she’s really like ... she’s hustling, right? She’s publishing a lot,” Chapnick said on a visit to the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, a national research library of pre-20th century American history and culture that has some of the stories Chapnick discovered in its collection as well as a first edition of “Little Women.”
Alcott remains best known for “Little Women,” published in two installments in 1868-69. Her classic coming-of-age novel about the four March sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy — has been adapted several times into feature films, most recently by Greta Gerwig in 2019.
Chapnick discovered Alcott’s other stories as part of his research into spiritualism and mesmerism. As he scrolled through digitized newspapers from the American Antiquarian Society, he found a story titled “The Phantom.” After seeing the name Gould at the end of the story, he initially dismissed it as Alcott’s story.
But then he read the story again.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Ping!..................
I can relate to this story. Years ago I was cleaning out a cabin owned by a crazy old dead uncle of mine. And I found a short poem. The first line was: “There once was a hermit named Dave.”
There was no author listed. But I think it was written by Louisa May Alcott.
This is interesting. I loved “Little Women” the first time I read it, and I loved Winona Ryder playing Jo in that version of the movie.
SUSAN: Daddy..
MR. ROSS: Yes?
SUSAN: Daddy, about the cabin..
MRS. ROSS: (Laughing, she points to her shirt) Look, Henry, I spilled wine on me! (Laughs again)
MR. ROSS: (To Susan) What about it?
SUSAN: Well, the thing is..
MR. ROSS: What? What is it?
SUSAN: Well, the - the cabin, is, kind of, uh.. George?
GEORGE: (Extremely blunt) Burned.
Thanks Red Badger.
An AI could analyze all of her known writings and compare the new ones in seconds.........
So all this time they were right there on the desk hiding under a pseudonym?
Dang...
Probably could write new ones too, like “Little Transgenders”.
Right. There are programs that analyze prose and compare them for authorship.
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