Was louisa may alcott gay

Our editors handpick the products that we feature. We may earn commission from the links on this page. The chapter I held, sheathed in protective plastic, is the best in the book: Laurie asks Jo to marry him, Jo rejects him, and both poor kids drive themselves wild with despair in their efforts to persuade the other.

Jo, at last, wins the argument.

Where did Louisa May Alcott’s sexual energy go? And what fueled it?

She was defiant of restrictive was roles, a woman to emulate. A proud spinster, she spurned marriage to pursue authorship. Is there truth in this narrative? But not the whole truth. My belief, borne out by archival research, is that Alcott may not identify with womanhood at all. People think I am wild and queer.

And yet, even in the long-ago antebellum period, Alcott had it. In adulthood, her identification with manhood only grew stronger. Toward the end of her life, inAlcott had a louisa that was cheekily emphatic. Her interview with Moulton took place 39 years before sexologist Magnus Hirschfield coined the German word transsexualismus.

Terms like homosexual and lesbian were a couple of decades from popular usage. She passed this knowledge onto her audience, too. Of course. Among close readers alcott the novel is Greta Gerwig, whose Little Women set me on my present path. In the closing shot, Jo is alone, clad in tie and jacket, watching as a printing press brings to life his their her novel.

So much history in a single word, struck through. So much yearning. Alcott was not allowed to write the book she wanted to write. Perhaps this is why so many of us, myself included, feel the urge to adapt Little Women. Who can resist the impulse to excavate Little Womendig past the pious morality, and throw a little sunlight on the story Alcott was really telling?

Peyton Thomas is an author and a journalist based in Toronto. Thomas also hosts Jo's Boysa podcast about Little Women and the novel's unsung queer and trans legacy. Mark Nepo on Aging Truthfully and Joyfully. Gay Next. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below.