Louisa May Alcott

I don't know about you, but I LOVE Louisa May Alcott. I grew up reading Little Women over and over and watching both the 1949 version with Elizabeth Taylor and the 1994 one with Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes and Susan Sarandon. I loved many of her other novels as well. One thing I always found fascinating about her was that she spent a few summers right here in Walpole! In fact the home she stayed in used to be owned by a family member of ours. Her 1878 book Under the Lilacs, was inspired by her time here. The lilacs in Walpole are absolutely breathtaking! I love them so much that I wanted to name Lillie, "Lillabel", which means beautiful lilac, but couldn't quite win Jon over to it =) but at least we have been able to use it for her nickname! Anyway, my sisters, mom and I have been huge L. M. Alcott fans for as long as I can remember.

Last fall I mentioned to Anne Marie, (author of the blog Na Da Farm Life...with Anne Marie) that I was dying to find a photo of Louisa May Alcott that I could draw a silhouette from so we could offer a similar pillow to our Jane Austen one. Well, lo and behold, she informed me she had a book that she was pretty sure had a photo like that. Sure, enough she found it and it did indeed have the perfect photo to work from. She scanned it in to send me and also sent me some lovely photos of not only the book, but of her beautiful daughter reading it!