Alcott's Hidden Critics: The Secret Reviews of Little Women

Lorraine Tosiello and Susan Bailey are seeking help on a project to uncover and preserve readers' responses to Little Women. It is called "Alcott's Hidden Critics: The Secret Reviews of Little Women."

The first wave of reader response was lost since Louisa May Alcott destroyed her fan mail. In an effort to preserve the ongoing legacy of reader responses, they want to send out a call for fans to examine their own letters and journals, school projects, fan fiction, etc., as well as from family and friends, for mentions of Little Women. We'd like to archive the findings on our LMA Society's website, so that anyone can access it for future research or just for fun.

Additionally, this project's more formal research component would search diaries of young women for mention of Little Women that are archived in historical societies and universities.

They seek your help on three fronts:

• to join the effort to ransack attics and basements for documents with mentions of Little Women
• to get the word out to others
• to offer the research aspect of this project to a colleague or student who might be interested in turning this into an academic project.

For more information, please contact Lorraine at ltosiello@gmail.com or Susan at louisamayalcottismypassion@gmail.com or visit Louisa May Alcott is My Passion.