A researcher has discovered about a dozen stories and poems believed to have been written by Louisa May Alcott under a previously unidentified pseudonym. She was known to have gone by several pseudonyms during her career, and E.H. Gould is the potential new moniker discovered by Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral teaching associate in English at Northeastern University.
Little Women is one of my all-time favorite books and I was excited to see these new discoveries. The researcher mentions that he thinks there are even more stories out there like this that people will find in the future. Do you think Alcott could have more undiscovered works out there? https://news.northeastern.edu/2023/11/08/louisa-may-alcott-new-pseudonym/
Yeah her other pseudonyms are a lot of fast paced melodramatic gothic romance-y type stuff, stuff that would serialize or sell well and make money. Interesting to read for the history, not in my experience great literature. It does enrich all the conversations about Jo’s different types of writing in Little Women, though.
I read many of Alcott’s books as a child, and re-read many as an adult when I began working in the children’s department in a library. Wow, the books are SO moralizing and sometimes rather heavy - I can’t believe that I loved them as a 10 year old in the 60’s!
Recently I scored a pretty copy of Eight Cousins so I re-read that, and afterwards A Rose In Bloom on Project Gutenberg and again, I love the stories and agree with a lot of her sermons on women not wearing corsets, and boys not smoking, but there’s such a heavy moral tone to everything.
Everybody loves Little Women (including many who have only seen the movies) but my god, suffer through Jack and Jill. Or others.
So it’s wild that she wrote all the crazy melodramas! I’m hoping this new stuff is bodice rippers or another genre.