LETTER: ALS to Edward Bok, editor of Brooklyn Magazine.
ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY. (1832-1888). American author best known for her novel Little Women. ALS. (“L. M. Alcott”). 4pp. 8vo. Boston, February 12 [1886]. Written on four sides of a single folded sheet to the editor of the Brooklyn Magazine, (EDWARD W. BOK; 1863-1930).
My reply to your question “When Shall Our Young Women Marry?” is – from twenty three to twenty five, as few girls are ready for the duties of married life before then, either physically or mentally. Many are never fit, owing to the serious defects in our modern education & inherited ills. When should our young men marry? is a more important question to my mind, because the sins of the fathers visited upon the children are more often the cause of that feebleness which is usually attributed to the mothers. When young people are wisely prepared for marriage & taught its sanctity it will cease to be the leap in the dark it now is to both parties, & the beauty & vigor of youth will make it what it should be, safe & happy. As teacher, nurse, author & confidante to young & old I have had many opportunities of looking behind the curtain & am convinced that books on the health of our boys, are much more needed than any additions to the library of advice our poor girls are supplied with. Begin at the right end, gentlemen, & do not visit upon Eve’s daughters the sins of Adam’s sons, making it unsafe to marry at all.
The daughter of transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott and abolitionist Abigail May, Alcott had an unconventional upbringing. She spent her childhood living according to her father’s philosophical ideals including time in a short-lived Utopian community, which Alcott helped found. Living out his beliefs often meant financial hardship and his schools failed for being too progressive. Louisa began a literary career to help alleviate her family’s situation, and earned money by selling her magazine articles, gothic romance novels and children’s stories. Her reputation grew with the publication of the novel Little Women and a series of subsequent related novels including Little Men. Little Women’s headstrong protagonist, Jo, was based on Alcott’s own experiences as a willful and independent child.
Alcott’s letter is a reply to the editor’s question and was printed in the April 1886 issue of Brooklyn Magazine (Vol. IV, No. 1) along with answers to the same question submitted by such prominent women as Alcott’s friends, suffragette Lucy Stone and transcendentalist Elizabeth P. Peabody.
Although not explicitly stated in our letter, Alcott is likely referring to the devastating effect of congenital syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases on children, for which there were only ineffectual treatments at the time. Before the social hygiene movement of the late 19th century, women were accepted as the source of such infections. Alcott is using the editor’s question to spread the message that men are also responsible for transmitting these diseases to their spouses and children, while also asserting that men and boys need to be better educated about their own sexuality – one of the main goals of the social hygiene movement.
At the time of our letter, Alcott was in failing health, working on the final installment of her March family trilogy, Jo’s Boys. It was published in July 1886 and included “lectures of temperance, plain-living, honesty, independence, and self-sacrifice,” (Louisa May Alcott: a Modern Biography, Saxton).
Very neatly written with a small separation along the vertical fold; otherwise very fine. Rare.
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