Flower Fables

The author of "Little Women" possessed a special gift for capturing children's imaginations, and she wrote these fairy tales when she was just sixteen years old. Louisa May Alcott created the fanciful stories for the amusement of the daughter of a family friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Populated by elves, brownies, and other supernatural creatures, the fables conclude with memorable lessons for young readers about the power of love and kindness and the importance of responsibility.
In "The Frost King," steadfast Violet approaches the fearsome ruler of winter in order to bring warmth and sunshine to the flowers back home. "Lily-Bell and Thistledown" recounts a wayward spirit's attempts to reform; and "Ripple, the Water-Spirit" tells of the sacrifice and rewards involved in keeping a promise. These and six additional stories and poems are accompanied by charmingly evocative illustrations.
Dover (2015) republication of the edition published by the Henry Altemus Company, Philadelphia, 1898.
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Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888) was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott in New England, she also grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. Alcott's family suffered financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used the pen name A. M. Barnard, under which she wrote novels for young adults. Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Hillside, later called the Wayside, in Concord, Massachusetts and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters. The novel was very well received and is still a popular children's novel today, filmed several times. Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She died in Boston on March 6, 1888.