Eden's Outcasts by John Matteson

More praise for
EDEN’S OUTCASTS
    â€œOne of the pleasures of the book is to be taken back to a time and place of intellectual and moral grandeur…. In producing such a rounded, detailed and compelling portrait of Louisa, [her father] Bronson, their family and their times, Matteson has provided us with a valuable context for appreciating that enduring masterpiece Little Women .”
    â€”Martin Rubin, Los Angeles Times
    â€œA splendid new dual biography…[a] lively tour of the early 19th century, when American humanistic optimism flowed, fed by an aquifer that lay in New England. There, powerful voices—including Bronson Alcott’s—condemned slavery, war, greed and convention…. Compassionate and compelling.”
    â€”Daniel Dyer, San Diego Union-Tribune
    â€œMatteson’s engrossing biography of the Alcotts achieves a rare fusion of intellectual precision and emotional empathy.”
    â€”Madeleine B. Stern, author of Louisa May Alcott
    â€œMatteson’s portrait of Bronson and Louisa is painted on a large canvas, capturing an era when ideals and practice collided as never before in the history of the American nation.”
    â€”Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters
    â€œ[An] engrossing dual portrait…. An interesting take on a well-known family. Summing Up: Recommended.”
    â€” Choice
    â€œMatteson tells the odd, fascinating story of the über idealistic Bronson Alcott and the impact of his life decisions on his daughter, beloved children’s book authoress Louisa May Alcott…. Particularly for those unfamiliar with the Alcott story, this is a journey of much interest.”
    â€” Christian Science Monitor
    â€œJohn Matteson paints a compelling portrait of one of the most well-known and well-connected transcendentalist philosophers of the 19th century.”
    â€” Bookmarks
    â€œMatteson’s book is gracefully written, a solid contribution to the bookshelf of New England literature.”
    â€”Steve Goddard’s History Wire
    â€œMatteson removes the roof from the home of this one-of-a-kind American family, revealing both the tragedies and the triumphs of its two most famous members. He gives a well-deserved dignity to an original American philosopher, Bronson Alcott, and offers scholars and the general reader one of the finest biographies to date of Louisa May Alcott. Eden’s Outcasts is the true story of the much-beloved little women.”
    â€”Daniel Shealy, editor of The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott
    â€œ Eden’s Outcasts is impossible to put down.”
    â€”Jamie Spencer, STLtoday.com
    â€œCarefully researched and sensitively written. Essential.”
    â€” Kirkus Reviews , starred review
    â€œMatteson gracefully interprets an astounding family drama of compassion and creativity, folly and courage. Matteson’s lucid, commanding biography casts new light on an unusual father-daughter bond and a new land at war with itself.”
    â€”Donna Seaman, Booklist
    â€œIn Eden’s Outcasts John Matteson represents father and daughter as fallible, fascinating, and lovable people who in the dramatic interplay of their lives came to accept and appreciate themselves and each other. Against the backdrop of Transcendentalism, Abolitionism, and the Civil War, peopled by the leading lights of their times, theirs is a family romance full of incident and surprise, told by Matteson with skill, erudition, and insight.”
    â€”Harriett Reisen, author and codirector of The Louisa May Alcott Project

E DEN’S O UTCASTS

IN A PAGE FROM BRONSON’S JOURNALS, OUTLINES OF HIS AND LOUISA’S HANDS OVERLAP.
    (COURTESY OF HOUGHTON LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY)

EDEN’S OUTCASTS
    THE STORY OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT AND HER FATHER
JOHN MATTESON
    W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
    New York • London

Copyright © 2007 by John Matteson
    All rights reserved
First published as a Norton 2008
    For information