Eden's Outcasts and Sunday vibes...

6 February 2022: Nothing to see here. Just me crying literal tears in my office on campus on a Sunday morning as I finish up Eden's Outcasts, my second book in as many weeks chronicling Louisa May Alcott's life. I know that it wasn't all bad, but parts of her life strike me as so frustratingly sad. Even though I knew it's coming, I am especially moved by the end of both books (because of how chronological order works, ha!), when little Lulu has arrived, but Alcott is only in her life for about seven years. And the pain and work and anxiety that marked her life. Ugh. 

But this part made me laugh out loud: after her Little Women success, tourist flocked to Concord. Matteson writes, "At one public appearance, an energetic matron worked [Alcott's] arm like a pump handle and exclaimed, 'If you ever come to Oshkosh, your feet will not be allowed to touch the ground; you will be borne in the arms of the people.' Louisa vowed never to visit Oshkosh" (383).