Scribbles, Sorrows and Russet Leather Boots

 

Liz Rosenberg's Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots is that rarest of beasts: a young adult biography, charmingly illustrated by Dian Sudyka. It's the life story of Louisa May Alcott, who wrote a version of her own autobiography in her best-known and deeply beloved novel, Little Women. 

However, as Scribbles, Sorrows makes clear, Little Women is a look at Louisa's youth through rose-tinted glasses. She did have three sisters, who conformed more or less to the images of the March sisters as we know them, and the family did live in Concord and did enjoy a life that combined good deeds, hard work and the freedom of picnics, boating, and amateur theatricals. But Louisa's real life was much harder and more bitter than the version she created for Little Women.

Mr Alcott was not exactly the wise, benign pastor we met in Mr March -- he was a man of high principles but little practical sense of responsibility. He started schools (all of which failed) and gave philosophical lectures, but refused to enter paid employment, which he regarded as a kind of slavery, despite the fact that this decision plunged his wife and children into utter poverty. He enjoyed the big book-lined study, which Louisa, the one who actually earned money with her writing, was forced to scribble at a cramped desk in the corner of her bedroom.

All the weight of responsibility for the family landed on Louisa's shoulders. The illness of Lizzie (Beth), the early death of Anna's (Meg's) husband, her parents' increasing frailty, May's (Amy's) artistic education, and eventually the raising of May's daughter -- all fell to Louisa to deal with, supporting the whole family with her writing. Tragically, her own health took a downward slide after a stint nursing during the Civil War. Louisa fell ill with typhoid pneumonia and was generously treated with calomel, then regarded as a wonder drug, but now exposed as toxic. Louisa suffered for the rest of her life with mercury poisoning, which eventually killed her.

Rosenberg attempts to paint Alcott's life as ultimately fulfilling and positive, but reading the details of her daily struggles, it's difficult to take such a rosy view. I've also read a Twitter theory that Alcott was trans, regarding herself as male, and certainly Louisa, or Louie, did take on much of the traditional masculine role of family breadwinner and guardian. However I think ultimately, without access to Alcott's private papers, I'm more comfortable with Greta Gerwig's interpretation of Jo and Laurie as blurring gender roles, with Jo leaning to the masculine and Laurie to the feminine. Rosenberg also seems inclined to this view.

Scribbles, Sorrows and Russet Leather Boots was lent to me by my friend Sian -- thank you!