Author Talk with Eve LaPlante

This March, in honor of Women’s History Month, The Mary Baker Eddy Library is hosting two free programs about Eve LaPlante’s latest work, Marmee and Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother.

Join us to hear acclaimed author and Alcott descendent, Eve LaPlante, discusses her latest work and the importance of women’s archives with Emmanuel College Professor and noted Alcott scholar, Lisa Stepanski.

Marmee & Louisa was meticulously researched from varied sources, including public documents archived at Harvard’s Houghton Library to a cache of previously unseen private papers found in a house in western Maine. LaPlante reveals the importance of Louisa's maternal side, the May family, on Louisa's abilities and ambition as an author. Contrary to generallyheld opinion, Louisa's father, Bronson Alcott, educator and philosopher, was not the primary influence on Louisa's literary accomplishments; it was the intellectual fire of her mother, mentor, muse, and inspiration, Abigail.

Eve LaPlante is a New England author with degrees from both Princeton and Harvard Universities. Her published works include articles, essays, and five nonfiction books, including Salem Witch Judge, the winner of the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction. As an Alcott scholar, LaPlante has been able to share new information about the lives of the Alcotts in her latest work, Marmee & Louisa.