Pulitzer Prize Biography Winner
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
by John Matteson
Summary
John Matteson weaves together the lives of Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, and her father Bronson Alcott, a transcendentalist philosopher and failed reformer. The book shows how the daughter's hard won literary success supported a family her idealistic father could not provide for. It is a dual portrait of love, duty, and the tension between art and high principle.
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Historical Context & Significance
Eden's Outcasts won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and was John Matteson's first book.