![ALCOTT, Louisa May (1832-1888). Three autograph letters signed ("L. M. A."), to Adeline May ("Dear Ade"), her youngest sister and the basis for the character Amy in Little Women. (1868). Concord, Mass., 7 June, 16 July and 2 August 1868. [With:] Autograph manuscript cast and costume list for her stage adaptation of Dickens's episode of "Mrs. Jarley's Waxworks". No date, ca. 1868. [With:] Four hand-drawn rebuses, evidently by Louisa, no date, ca. 1868. [With:] Two printed handbills for performances featuring Louisa and her circle, at the Town Hall, Leicester, Mass., July 28 and 29, 1868. Together 18 pages, oblong and 12mo, plus two small folio handbills.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/NYR/2013_NYR_02717_0001_000(alcott_louisa_may_three_autograph_letters_signed_to_adeline_may_her_yo032427).jpg?w=1)
Property of a Boston Institution
ALCOTT, Louisa May (1832-1888). Three autograph letters signed ("L. M. A."), to Adeline May ("Dear Ade"), her youngest sister and the basis for the character Amy in Little Women. (1868). Concord, Mass., 7 June, 16 July and 2 August 1868. [With:] Autograph manuscript cast and costume list for her stage adaptation of Dickens's episode of "Mrs. Jarley's Waxworks". No date, ca. 1868. [With:] Four hand-drawn rebuses, evidently by Louisa, no date, ca. 1868. [With:] Two printed handbills for performances featuring Louisa and her circle, at the Town Hall, Leicester, Mass., July 28 and 29, 1868. Together 18 pages, oblong and 12mo, plus two small folio handbills.
Details
ALCOTT, Louisa May (1832-1888). Three autograph letters signed ("L. M. A."), to Adeline May ("Dear Ade"), her youngest sister and the basis for the character Amy in Little Women. (1868). Concord, Mass., 7 June, 16 July and 2 August 1868. [With:] Autograph manuscript cast and costume list for her stage adaptation of Dickens's episode of "Mrs. Jarley's Waxworks". No date, ca. 1868. [With:] Four hand-drawn rebuses, evidently by Louisa, no date, ca. 1868. [With:] Two printed handbills for performances featuring Louisa and her circle, at the Town Hall, Leicester, Mass., July 28 and 29, 1868. Together 18 pages, oblong and 12mo, plus two small folio handbills.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, DRAMATIST: 7 June 1868: Written while she was at work on her classic Little Women, published by the Boston firm of Roberts Brothers the same year. She also mentions work for Horace B. Fuller, publisher of a children's magazine, Merry's Museum, which she edited from 1868 to 1870. "...As I have a book to finish for Roberts by July first, lots to do for Fuller & several tales for other parties...I have some doubts about being alive at the time fixed...." Louisa was active in amateur theatricals performed to benefit the Leicester Freedman's Aid Society. She frequently acted in a humorous scene featuring Charles Dickens's character Mrs. Jarley, in the episode "Mrs Jarley's Waxworks" from The Old Curiosity Shop. She advises Adeline May to "get up some play to suit your company minus me, & I will best to have a Dickens scene or two...." Clearly, "Louisa enjoyed her performance as keenly as her audience did" (Madeline B. Stern, Louisa May Alcott, p.143-144.). 15 July 1868: Detailed comments on theater roles including the unforgettable Mrs. Sarah Gamp, from Martin Chuzzlewit. "Very few farces, when played by amateurs, take half an hour, & Gamp is a short one so I don't think it will need more than fifteen or twenty minutes. Jarley, after the curtain rises, takes about ten minutes. So I should think a short farce with 'Naval Engagements' and Jarley as a wind up would be best....Frankly speaking I don't think Gamp will suit as well as Jarley"..., which "always goes well, & makes a jolly wind-up. If it can get it into my trunk I'll bring my nice hat, which is grand for the giant, I will see if I have any relics of my former stage wardrobe which may be useful..." 2 August 1868: "...The fact that I am leading the life of a shiftless pig will explain my silence, my highly improper silence...I do nothing but stuff, doze, lounge & gossip, & find it agrees with me excellently." She praises her correspondent, "an uncommon smart young woman," and "I sound your praises far & wide," but "I shall never write the story, for it is too vast & varied, too deep & dramatic a subject for my feeble pen to undertake...."
[With:] Autograph manuscript cast and costume list for Mrs Jarley at the Waxworks: 2 pages, 12mo. Characters sketched include Lord Byron: "in black with a Byronic collar," Martha Bangs, "the insane maid," a "Chinese Giant," a certain "Lady Boadicea Fifty Battleaxe," and the pirate Captain Kidd: "red shirt, black beard...pistols & a sword." Louisa also designates the best roles for her family and friends to play. [With:] Four hand-drawn rebuses, in pencil, similar to examples published in Merry's Museum, ascribed to "Aunt Sue." (10)
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, DRAMATIST: 7 June 1868: Written while she was at work on her classic Little Women, published by the Boston firm of Roberts Brothers the same year. She also mentions work for Horace B. Fuller, publisher of a children's magazine, Merry's Museum, which she edited from 1868 to 1870. "...As I have a book to finish for Roberts by July first, lots to do for Fuller & several tales for other parties...I have some doubts about being alive at the time fixed...." Louisa was active in amateur theatricals performed to benefit the Leicester Freedman's Aid Society. She frequently acted in a humorous scene featuring Charles Dickens's character Mrs. Jarley, in the episode "Mrs Jarley's Waxworks" from The Old Curiosity Shop. She advises Adeline May to "get up some play to suit your company minus me, & I will best to have a Dickens scene or two...." Clearly, "Louisa enjoyed her performance as keenly as her audience did" (Madeline B. Stern, Louisa May Alcott, p.143-144.). 15 July 1868: Detailed comments on theater roles including the unforgettable Mrs. Sarah Gamp, from Martin Chuzzlewit. "Very few farces, when played by amateurs, take half an hour, & Gamp is a short one so I don't think it will need more than fifteen or twenty minutes. Jarley, after the curtain rises, takes about ten minutes. So I should think a short farce with 'Naval Engagements' and Jarley as a wind up would be best....Frankly speaking I don't think Gamp will suit as well as Jarley"..., which "always goes well, & makes a jolly wind-up. If it can get it into my trunk I'll bring my nice hat, which is grand for the giant, I will see if I have any relics of my former stage wardrobe which may be useful..." 2 August 1868: "...The fact that I am leading the life of a shiftless pig will explain my silence, my highly improper silence...I do nothing but stuff, doze, lounge & gossip, & find it agrees with me excellently." She praises her correspondent, "an uncommon smart young woman," and "I sound your praises far & wide," but "I shall never write the story, for it is too vast & varied, too deep & dramatic a subject for my feeble pen to undertake...."
[With:] Autograph manuscript cast and costume list for Mrs Jarley at the Waxworks: 2 pages, 12mo. Characters sketched include Lord Byron: "in black with a Byronic collar," Martha Bangs, "the insane maid," a "Chinese Giant," a certain "Lady Boadicea Fifty Battleaxe," and the pirate Captain Kidd: "red shirt, black beard...pistols & a sword." Louisa also designates the best roles for her family and friends to play. [With:] Four hand-drawn rebuses, in pencil, similar to examples published in Merry's Museum, ascribed to "Aunt Sue." (10)