Louisa May Alcott was a legendary American author in the nineteenth century. Alcott's parents were well known transcendentalists in New England and she grew up with other famous authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. With classic works such as Little Women, Eight Cousins, and An Old-Fashioned Girl, Alcott remains one of the most widely read authors in American literature. Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag is a collection of short stories, some completely fictional and some semi-autobiographical, as well as some memories from Alcott.