Although she grew up in an educated household in 19th Century New England, studying transcendentalism under Ralph Waldo Emerson and making acquaintanceships with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott grew up poor, and also independent, intelligent, and tough-minded. Through the course of her lifetime, she became a highly celebrated and successful author, writing nonstop and cementing her legacy in Little Women, one of the most popular of all American books, and one that reflected her own cherished family."Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind 'Little Women'" takes a different approach than the other profiles in the American Masters series and features actors portraying Alcott and the other figures in her life, while directing the camera directly, an approach I was at first opposed to, but which then grew on me. The rest of Alcott's surprising and highly accomplished is nicely presented in this loving portrait of a highly admired author.
