Louisa on the Front Lines: Louisa May Alcott in the Civil War

by Samantha Seiple

Overview

An eye-opening look at Little Women author Louisa May Alcott's time as a Civil War nurse, and the far-reaching implications her service had on her writing and her activism

Louisa on the Frontlines is the first narrative nonfiction book focusing on the least-known aspect of Louisa May Alcott's career -- her time spent as a nurse during the Civil War. Though her service was brief, the dramatic experience was one that she considered pivotal in helping her write the beloved classic Little Women. It also deeply affected her tenuous relationship with her father, and inspired her commitment to abolitionism. Through it all, she kept a journal and wrote letters to her family and friends. These letters were published in the newspaper, and her subsequent book, Hospital Sketches spotlighted the dire conditions of the military hospitals and the suffering endured by the wounded soldiers she cared for. To this day, her work is considered a pioneering account of military nursing.

Alcott's time as an Army nurse in the Civil War helped her find her authentic voice -- and cemented her foundational belief system. Louisa on the Frontlines reveals the emergence of this prominent feminist and abolitionist -- a woman whose life and work has inspired millions and continues to do so today,

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580058032
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	02/26/2019
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Samantha Seiple is the author of the young adult narrative nonfiction books Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska's WWII Invasion, a YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Nominee and a Junior Library Guild Selection; Lincoln's Spymaster: America's First Private Eye, a Junior Library Guild Selection; Byrd & Igloo: A Polar Adventure; and Death on the River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Amazon Adventure. She has worked as a competitive intelligence specialist, as a librarian, and as a production editor and copy editor. Her education includes degrees in English, journalism, and library and information science. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Heroine's Journey 1

Part 1 The War at Home

Chapter 1 Wayward Daughter 7

Chapter 2 Stitches 29

Chapter 3 A Soldier's Story 41

Chapter 4 Help Wanted 49

Chapter 5 Georgetown or Bust 59

Chapter 6 Burnside's Blunder 71

Chapter 7 The Hurly-Burly House 81

Chapter 8 A Bitter Pill 127

Chapter 9 Duty's Faithful Daughter 143

Chapter 10 A Gift 157

Part 2 Where Glory Waits

Chapter 11 Unfulfilled Destiny 171

Chapter 12 The Chariot of Glory 185

Epilogue Still on the Front Lines 193

Acknowledgments 199

Source Notes 201

Selected Bibliography 225

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

★ 12/01/2018

With this work, YA nonfiction author Seiple (Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska's WWII Invasion) steps into the adult arena to craft a narrative that makes novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) as accessible in all of her passions, strengths, weaknesses, and actions as the characters in her books. Select passages from Alcott's journals show her wrestling with many of the issues that beleaguer her heroine Jo March from Little Women. These cover her experiences as a nurse during the Civil War, including a train ride to the Union Hotel Hospital in Washington, DC, in which she describes walking through the patient ward hoping to appear motherly since "my thirty years made me feel old, and my suffering made me long to comfort every one." There's a beautiful humanness in Seiple's descriptions of Alcott, who bravely worked in a ward "full of amputated limbs," even as she grappled with internal battles about issues ranging from slavery to the politics of marriage. VERDICT Readers will discover in these pages an author as vibrant as her writings, and find themselves returning to her work with fresh eyes. Alcott scholars will encounter a liveliness if not substantive new information.—Emily Bowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

Library Journal

12/24/2018

Seiple (Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska’s WWII Invasion) provides unique insight into Louisa May Alcott’s time serving as a nurse during the Civil War, explaining how her experience at the Washington, D.C., Union Hotel Hospital essentially launched her writing career. Seiple sets the scene by chronicling Alcott’s home life, both its boons (being raised in a politically and intellectually enlightened environment) and its difficulties (desperate poverty). Alcott ardently wished to be a soldier, but as women were not allowed to serve, she determined that nursing was her “destiny.” She arrived at the hospital in 1862 and began work immediately, tending to the wounded and observing surgical operations. Alcott’s service at Union Hotel was cut short after she contracted typhoid, and Seiple chronicles her slow and agonizing recovery in detail, along with the period of refreshment and renewal afterward in which she published “Hospital Sketches” (her correspondence from the hospital), and the novels Moods and Little Women. While other biographies may provide a more complete picture of Alcott’s life, Seiple’s version is laser-focused on this particular period, convincingly making the unique argument that Alcott’s difficult trials forged her personality and informed virtually every facet of her work. Lovers of Alcott and fans of Civil War history will be equally pleased. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Louisa on the Front Lines is a lively account of a critical moment in Alcott's life, her time working as a nurse in the Civil War — a moment that reverberates, sometimes in surprising ways, in her most beloved work."—Louisa Thomas, Author of Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams

"Bravo to Samantha Seiple for her sensitive portrayal of the difficulties and the successes of Civil War nurses, as seen through the clear eyes of Louisa May Alcott."—Dr. Patricia Brady, Historian and Biographer

"Louisa on the Front Lines tells the story of a powerful period in Louisa May Alcott's life—her brief occupation as a Civil War nurse. Samantha Seiple, with her lively, well-researched narrative, captures Alcott at a pivotal time in the history of our country and in her own career as a young writer. Readers will discover the story both engaging and informative. Alcott herself would have marveled at how Seiple's biographical and historical account reads like a novel!"—Daniel Shealy, UNC Professor of English and editor of The Journals of Louisa May Alcott

"There's a beautiful humanness in Seiple's descriptions of Alcott...Readers will discover in these pages an author as vibrant as her writings, and find themselves returning to her work with fresh eyes. Alcott scholars will encounter a liveliness if not substantive new information."—Library Journal

From the Publisher

2018-11-20

A tightly focused biography on a brief period in the life of Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888): her time as a nurse during the Civil War.

Alcott's life seems like something out of our imagination. She was raised in Concord, Massachusetts, with a transcendentalist father and social worker mother, and she became closely acquainted with John Brown, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass, with whom she shared abolitionist sympathies. Though she experienced a wealth of intellectual stimulus, she and her family also struggled financially, causing her and her sisters to seek work where they could find it. As young adult nonfiction author Seiple (Death on the River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Amazon Adventure, 2017, etc.) shows, that was a most difficult task in 1860s America, where options for women were severely limited. Thankfully, Alcott realized her writing talent early, and by her late 20s, she had published a book as well as articles in the Atlantic Monthly. In 1858, tragedy struck with the death of her younger sister, despite Louisa's devoted nursing. By 1862, she discovered the popularity of sensational thrillers published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and provided a steady stream of stories under a male name, thus providing a small income. Even with her literary success, she felt the need to affect the ongoing war, so she volunteered and traveled to Washington, D.C., to serve at the Union Hotel Hospital. There she met a badly wounded man who opened her heart and wakened her authentic voice, transforming her characters and stories forever. During her time at the hospital, Alcott nearly died of pneumonia and returned to Concord. There she wrote Hospital Sketches, Thoreau's Flute, and Pauline's Passion and Punishment, which earned enough to save her family. Then she published Little Women, in which "she expertly weaved her progressive beliefs and empathetic insights…creating original and unforgettable characters." Throughout, Seiple's fluid style of writing displays few fireworks but makes the story read like a novel.

A useful addition to the Alcott archives that would also appeal to younger readers.

Kirkus Reviews