Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 - March 6, 1888), novelist, activist, and poet, is still famous enough today to be the subject of today's Google Doodle.
She was born in Pennsylvania but the family moved to Massachusetts when she was two years old. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a prominent intellectual of his day, associated with the Transcendentalist movement, but he was not particularly successful at supporting his family, and Louisa began writing to supplement the family income. Her first poem, Sunlight, was published in 1852, and her first book, Flower Fables, three years later.
Her earliest novels were published under a pseudonym because they were not written on "ladylike" subjects, and it was many years before her authorship was revealed. However, they had been financially successful, which was her goal.
Alcott supported several social causes such as abolition, womens' suffrage, and temperance. She knew several of the reformers of the time, including William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone, and Theodore Parker. In 1875 she attended the Women's Congress in Syracuse, NY. She might have written more about these subjects, but following the great success of Little Women (1868) and its successor novels for children, she decided to continue writing what was most lucrative for her (and her family).
Alcott has been quoted in various places as saying that she only wrote one hymn, A little kingdom I possess, which first appeared in a songbook titled The Sunny Side (1875) and later in Alcott's novel Under the Lilacs. However, this quote is taken from a letter she wrote to Eva Munson Smith in 1883 when she gave permission for that text to be included in Smith's monumental Woman in Sacred Song (which was not actually published until 1888). One of the editors of The Sunny Side, Charles Wendte, later published another songbook titled The Carol (1886), in which today's hymn for children appeared. Alcott's name is prominently trumpeted on the book's title page and introduction, and this text appears to have been written at Wendte's request (also, its copyright date is the same as the book's). So, clearly, she did write more than one (and a few of her other poems were matched to tunes by later hymnal editors).
What shall little children bring
As a grateful offering
For the ever-watchful care
That surrounds us everywhere?
Gathered in this happy fold,
Safe from wintry want and cold,
Fed by hands that never tire;
Warmed at Love's unfailing fire.
Sheltered by protecting arms
From the great world's sins and harms,
While a Patience, wise and sweet,
Guides our little wand'ring feet.
Jesus! dearest name of all,
Bless your children great and small;
Faith and hope in God we bring,
These shall be our offering.
Louisa May Alcott, 1886; alt.
Tune: INNOCENTS (7.7.7.7.)
The Parish Choir, 1850;
harm. William Henry Monk, 1861
The postage stamp above was issued in 1940, representing Alcott as one of ten authors in the Famous Americans series of stamps.
Eight Years Ago: John Haynes Holmes
Six Years Ago: Louisa May Alcott
Popular novelist Louisa May Alcott was born on this day in 1832, in Pennsylvania, though she lived for most of her life in New England. Orchard House, in Concord, MA, was the Alcott family home for many years and is maintained today as a museum. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a prominent intellectual of the day and other literary figures such as Henry David Thoreau. Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller were friends of the family.
However, Bronson Alcott was not particularly good at providing for his family, and Louisa went to work at an early age to help, serving as a teacher, governess, and seamstress in addition to some early writing. She wrote articles, stories, and poetry for the Atlantic Monthly and other magazines, publishing her first book of childrens' stories, Flower Fables, in 1849. She briefly served as a nurse during the Civil War, and in 1863 revised some of her letters home during that time, publishing them as Hospital Sketches. This was her first book to receive critical notice.
Five years later came the well-known and well-loved Little Women, which has never been out of print since. Three sequels followed, establishing Alcott as the wholesome author of uplifting tales for children. However, in the 1940s, literary sleuths Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern discovered several short stories and novels that Alcott had published under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard. These tales were sensationalistic and somewhat lurid, a long way from the March sisters of Little Women, but Alcott has written most of them in the years before the acclaim of her childrens' novels, and the Barnard material had sold well, which was, after all, its purpose. Later novels for adults included Work (1873), which was also semi-autobiographical, and A Modern Mephistopheles (1873), which was much closer in tone to the Barnard stories and published anonymously.
Alcott herself said that she had written only one hymn, A little kingdom I possess. However, this poem about the life of Christ was set to music in Charles Hutchins' Carols Old and Carols New (1916) and has appeared in a few other collections since. I've chosen a more accessible tune for its possible use today.
O, the beautiful old story!
Of the little child that lay
In a manger on that morning,
When the stars sang in the day;
When the happy shepherds kneeling,
As before a holy shrine,
Bless’d God and the tender mother
For this life that was divine.
O, the pleasant, peaceful story!
Of the youth who grew so fair,
In his parents’ humble dwelling
Poverty and toil to share,
Till around him in the temple,
Marveling, the old men stood,
As through his wise innocency
Shone the meek boy’s angelhood.
O, the wonderful, true story!
Of the messenger from God,
Who among the poor and lowly,
Bravely and devoutly trod,
Working miracles of mercy,
Preaching peace, rebuking strife,
Blessing all the little children,
Lifting up the dead to life.
O, the sad and solemn story!
Of the cross, the crown, the spear,
Of the pardon, pain, and glory
That have made his Name so dear.
Christ's example let us follow,
Fearless, faithful to the end,
Walking in the sacred footsteps
Of our Brother, Savior, Friend.
Louisa May Alcott, 19th cent.; alt.
Tune: BEECHER (8.7.8.7.D.)
John Zundel, 1870
Hymnary.org lists a few other Alcott texts that have appeared in hymnals, in spite of her own claim of a single hymn. As we have often seen, later generations choose their own hymns from the verse of the past.
