Circa 1867, Louisa May Alcott was yearning for success. Despite being featured in a number of periodicals, writing consistently for serials, and even putting out a few books, she hadn’t yet broken through to the realm of real popularity. She tried seemingly everything, even writing salacious tales of seduction and murder — under pseudonyms, of course, but nothing ever really stuck. She just couldn’t break through to the masses.

Discouraged and indignant, Alcott frequently did verbal battle with her publishers. She insisted that the stories she wrote would catch on, and they told her to instead try writing things that would appeal more to traditional American young ladies. So, in an act of sneaky rebellion, she decided to give in to her publishers—those dim-witted literary patriarchs, and prove to them that the moralistic tales they wanted were boring, overly sentimental, and would never sell like they predicted. In 1868 she turned in the manuscript for her first sentimental novel, a book she coyly entitled, Little Women. By the following year, it would be one of the most highly sold books in the entire Western World.

Savannah Jones is a graduate student here at UNCW, and she has spent a lot of time looking into Alcott, her literary tastes, and the effect that Little Women had on the now iconic author’s developing career. She has dedicated her honors thesis to the study of Alcott’s resistance, dabbling, and eventual dedication to Sentimentalism. She grapples with the disconnect between Alcott’s disdain for sensationalism, and her full-fledged commitment to the genre in her professional offerings.