by Katherine Anthony

[Knopf, $3.00]

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT is an interesting person for herself, as a representative of the generally unappreciated but fascinating Alcott family, and as an example of the period when the New England mind was undergoing a fundamental change in point of view. The life wdiich began under the idealistic Transcendentalism and ended under the eminently utilitarian Gilded Age affords the opportunity for an interesting chart of intellectual and social forecs.

Louisa May Alcott’s youth was sharply broken by her searing hospital experiences during the Civil War and her resulting illness. Then came the famous Little Women, and her decision that she should devote herself to a career of work.

Such a life and such a period should, as Miss Anthony hopes, he a great subject for a mature book. That this is not the case is the fault of the author, not the material. Miss Anthony lacks even the first prerequisite: an understanding of the New England mind and of Transcendentalism.

Not understanding New England, Miss Anthony might at least be expected to understand the subjects of her biography. On the contrary, she does not begin to comprehend the complexities and importance of Bronson Alcott , and by her superficial analysis shows no evidence of having read Odell Shepard’s brilliant and indispensable biography. When the reader comes to the main figure, Louisa May, he finds himself no better off. At best the character is always tenuous and discussed as if the biographer’s feminine intuition, adoration, and romantic impressionism gave her the right to neglect facts. There is too much moody, flattery emotion over “Poor possessive Louisa!’ and not enough logical development of evidence; too much lyrical melting of the heart and not enough sane, steady analysis.

Miss Anthony’s long suit is a febrile kind of psychology, which all too often is based on guesswork, as in the discussion of her heroine’s supposed love affair with a Polish youth. When facts are not lacking, they are frequently misconstrued, and Miss Anthony gives herself away by an occasional quoting from Louisa’s journals, which she then proceeds to misinterpret or read a good deal into. Nor does she give the reader faith in her literary analysis when she declares that LittleWomen ‘was the first purely American novel,’ while the work of Cooper, Melville, Hawthorne, and many others, is not explained away. Louisa May Alcott is certainly an extremely important and interesting American woman, but her reputation has not been helped by this carelessly written, undiscerning biography.

JAMES D. HART