The Lost Stories of Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott, like her beloved character Jo March, supported herself and her family by writing anonymous stories for popular magazines. This book includes nine newly discovered stories, which were uncovered by tireless literary detective work. Alcott's papers were scrutinized for clues to the author's anonymous and pseudonymous tales. Cryptic notations in the margins of Alcott's account books led to a periodical that had never before been associated with her, "Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine," which published a number of Alcott stories anonymously between 1868 and 1870.

Written while she was completing "Little Women," the stories that Alcott scribbled in her Boston attic were drawn from her experiences, from her reading, and even from her dreams. Her thrillers are spiced with deceptions and betrayals, drugs and suicides, exotic props and European royalty.