John Matteson - Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father

One of the pleasures of the book is to be taken back to a time and place of intellectual and moral grandeur. In producing such a rounded, detailed and compelling portrait of Louisa, [her father] Bronson, their family and their times, Matteson has provided us with a valuable context for appreciating that enduring masterpiece Little Women .

Martin Rubin, Los Angeles Times

A splendid new dual biography[a] lively tour of the early 19th century, when American humanistic optimism flowed, fed by an aquifer that lay in New England. There, powerful voicesincluding Bronson Alcottscondemned slavery, war, greed and convention. Compassionate and compelling.

Daniel Dyer, San Diego Union-Tribune

Mattesons engrossing biography of the Alcotts achieves a rare fusion of intellectual precision and emotional empathy.

Madeleine B. Stern, author of Louisa May Alcott

Mattesons portrait of Bronson and Louisa is painted on a large canvas, capturing an era when ideals and practice collided as never before in the history of the American nation.

Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters

[An] engrossing dual portrait. An interesting take on a well-known family. Summing Up: Recommended.

Choice

Matteson tells the odd, fascinating story of the ber idealistic Bronson Alcott and the impact of his life decisions on his daughter, beloved childrens book authoress Louisa May Alcott. Particularly for those unfamiliar with the Alcott story, this is a journey of much interest.

Christian Science Monitor

John Matteson paints a compelling portrait of one of the most well-known and well-connected transcendentalist philosophers of the 19th century.

Bookmarks

Mattesons book is gracefully written, a solid contribution to the bookshelf of New England literature.

Steve Goddards History Wire

Matteson removes the roof from the home of this one-of-a-kind American family, revealing both the tragedies and the triumphs of its two most famous members. He gives a well-deserved dignity to an original American philosopher, Bronson Alcott, and offers scholars and the general reader one of the finest biographies to date of Louisa May Alcott. Edens Outcasts is the true story of the much-beloved little women.

Daniel Shealy, editor of The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott

Edens Outcasts is impossible to put down.

Jamie Spencer, STLtoday.com

Carefully researched and sensitively written. Essential.

Kirkus Reviews , starred review

Matteson gracefully interprets an astounding family drama of compassion and creativity, folly and courage. Mattesons lucid, commanding biography casts new light on an unusual father-daughter bond and a new land at war with itself.

Donna Seaman, Booklist

In Edens Outcasts John Matteson represents father and daughter as fallible, fascinating, and lovable people who in the dramatic interplay of their lives came to accept and appreciate themselves and each other. Against the backdrop of Transcendentalism, Abolitionism, and the Civil War, peopled by the leading lights of their times, theirs is a family romance full of incident and surprise, told by Matteson with skill, erudition, and insight.

Harriett Reisen, author and codirector of The Louisa May Alcott Project

IN A PAGE FROM BRONSONS JOURNALS, OUTLINES OF HIS AND LOUISAS HANDS OVERLAP.

(COURTESY OF HOUGHTON LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY)