Louisa May Alcott (1832 –1888) was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys. Alcott wrote the books rapidly over several months at the request of her publisher. The novel follows the lives of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March, detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood, and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters.