[Literature] Alcott, Louisa May. (1832 - 1888)
Little Women - SIGNED
Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1880. RARE SIGNED COPY OF ONE OF THE MOST BELOVED AMERICAN BOOKS586 pp. green decorative boards with gold inlay, gilt page edges. Signed on the front free endpage in blue ink "L. M. Alcott."
Ex-library, with a 1917 library gift Ex Libris pasted to inner front board, a March 7, 1888 Alcott obituary newspaper clipping tipped to verso of half title and opposite facing blank (with resultant staining to pages), library punch-through stamps at lower edge of title page and blank upper edge of first page, small paper label to inner rear board. Despite these faults, a solid and overall attractive copy of a book which, though by far the author's most famous work, is extremely uncommon in signed copies. We found no record of any signed Little Women appearing at auction in the past 40 years.
First published in 1868, Little Women follows the lives, loves and tribulations of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. The story is based the childhood experiences Alcott shared with her real life sisters and explores the rich nuances of family and family relationships. G. K. Chesterton has noted that in Little Women, Alcott "anticipated realism by twenty or thirty years," and that Fritz's proposal to Jo, and her acceptance, "is one of the really human things in human literature." (7995)
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